Titan Legends Volume Four: Return of the Mask
by Link the Teen Titan
Summary: The Titans meet a new friend named Ian, who has trouble with his dark powers. The others convince Raven to help him, and the two end up becoming close. Elsewhere, Link and Robin get into an argument and Link ends up leaving. Starfire follows after him, and eventually the two of them journey to a ravaged island, and accidentally unleash an ancient evil; and things get even worse.
1. Chapter 1: The Shadow Mage

**After a lot of brainstorming, I have finally started Volume 4 of Titan Legends. I currently only have one chapter written, but I'll have more eventually. **

**This Volume introduces yet another new character: an OC of mine named Ian Valtos. He is a shady body who uses dark powers, much like Raven, and also has some kind of connection with the Wind Mage Vaati; who is sealed into the Four Sword. But what kind of connection is it exactly?**

**The other major event in this volume is that another new evil being is unleashed: Majora's Mask. Who becomes a major antagonist throughout the rest of my fanfiction.**

* * *

Chapter One: The Shadow Mage

It was an ordinary day in downtown Jump City. Well, ordinary for most people, but not for us. My name is Link; my friends and I defend Jump City as the Teen Titans. Our team consisted of me and five of my friends; Robin, the serious and determined team leader; Cyborg, a man who is half machine, half human; Beast Boy, a green-skinned kid who could change into any animal; Raven, a sorceress who was skilled at shadow magic; and of course, Starfire, a girl from the Planet Tamaran, who was strong, kind, and my best friend. As for me, I am a swordsman that wears a green tunic and floppy, pointed cap. I had not known much about my past before I met my friends, but not too long ago I found out a lot about my past, and a lot more as well.

We had been patrolling the city when we heard about an attack at the local museum. Naturally, we went to investigate, and what we saw was surprising. Right outside of the museum, a large white monster was attacking the museum guards. It was humanoid, except for its face, which had black markings and two small red eyes. This wasn't the first time we had encountered this creature before; in fact, on the day that I returned from my three year journey across the world, my friends had been fighting this monster. The museum guards tried to keep it back using their nightsticks, but it was not working very well. The monster grabbed one of the nightsticks right out of the hands of one of the guards and gripped it tightly. As it did so, its entire body changed into the same material as the nightstick; the monster was now made of metal. We didn't know why it was trying to break into a museum, but we knew we had to stop it. Robin threw one of his bird-erangs at it to get its attention.

"Hey! You want into the museum? Then you'd better buy a ticket!" Robin told the monster as a way to intimidate it.

The monster was not intimidated by this however; instead, it's eyes contracted as if it was scanning us. A moment later, its eyes widened and began glowing fiercely. Its body grew to twice its normal size, and the shape of its head also changed and look a lot more frightening. Despite this frightening transformation, we were still ready for battle. The monster charged at us; fortunately we were all able to dodge the attack and retaliate.

Starfire tried firing several of her star bolts at the monster, but its metal body reflected each one. This did distract it for a moment though; just enough time for Cyborg to come in and punch it. The creature skid back from the impact, but was otherwise unscathed. Robin threw several bombs at the monster that flashed when they exploded in an attempt to blind it, and then charged at it with his bo staff. He swiped at the monster several times, but his staff broke on the final impact and the monster knocked him back with its metal hand. The beast appeared to laugh afterwards, but it was hard to tell.

At that moment, Beast Boy transformed into an ox and rammed the monster, which drove it back again but still did not damage it. It tried attacking him too, but Beast Boy changed into a small bird and flew out of the way just in time. During this distraction, Raven used her magic to lift a nearby car and throw it at the monster. The beast noticed however, and knocked the car aside before it hit. I then tried getting a few hits in with my sword, and it wasn't just any sword; it was a legendary blade known as the Master Sword, which I used in our battle against Ganondorf about two months ago. My sword had an effect on the creature, as with each hit I delivered the monster appeared to stagger for a few seconds. However I still couldn't damage it, and it managed to dodge one of my strikes and retaliate. I was able to block it, but the strength of the blow knocked me back a few feet. The others kept going at the monster, but I knew that with the way we were attacking it right now, we wouldn't be able to beat it. I then remembered what I had done when I first encountered this thing; I shot an arrow at it. I pulled out my bow to try the same tactic, but with its body made of metal I knew I would need some extra power, so I went into spirit mode. Spirit mode is a special power of mine that was given to me by the Light Spirit Lanayru; it allows for me to perform better while in battle, and also grants new effects to my weapons. I can't use it for too long though, because if I stay in spirit mode for longer than ten minutes, it deactivates automatically and leaves me completely exhausted.

Regardless, I set an arrow onto my bow and pulled back, focusing my spirit powers into the arrow, and then shot it at the monster. Something I did not expect however, was that the arrow had caught on fire in mid-flight. I was confused at first, but then realized that it was likely caused by my spirit powers. When the arrow hit the monster, it exploded in a flash of fire, which knocked the monster to the ground. The others were surprised by the attack, and turned to face me.

"Dude! Since when do your arrows do _that_?!" Beast Boy asked me.

"Uhh… since just now?" I answered awkwardly.

"You were using your spirit mode powers with that attack, right?" Robin asked.

I nodded to answer his question, and he and the others commented that having the ability to shoot fire arrows will be very useful in the future. However we couldn't celebrate just yet, as the monster had just recovered from the attack. Worse than that, it had absorbed the fire from my arrow and transformed its body into fire! Facing a metal monster was hard enough, but now we had to face a fire monster?! The monster charged at us again, but before it hit any of us, a stream of purplish colored energy came out of nowhere and blasted the beast to the side. The attack had extinguished the monster, and once it got back up it fled the scene. We had all wondered if Raven was the one who attacked it, but it wasn't. I looked around in the direction that the attack had come from, and eventually saw who had helped us. Standing near the museum entrance was a pale-colored boy with dark purple hair wearing an indigo jacket. I knew this was the person who had performed that attack, because I could see aura that was the same color as the attack exuding from his hand. My friends and I began to approach him and we noticed that the attack seemed to have exhausted him.

"Hey, was that you who shot that energy wave at that thing?" I asked him.

He seemed reluctant to answer at first, but after a moment he nodded.

"Well, thanks. If you hadn't, who knows what would've happened!" I told him.

I introduced myself to him, as did everyone else. Robin then asked the boy what his name was.

"Its Ian… Ian Valtos…" he answered after a few seconds.

"You're not from around here, are you Ian?" Raven asked from out of nowhere.

Ian was still a bit reluctant to answer. I did notice that there was something strange about him; it looked like he was shivering slightly, and part of his hair was covering his left eye, while underneath his right eye there was an odd arrow-shaped marking. It was strange, but it didn't bother me that much; people have thought it strange to be around _me _for my entire life. A few seconds later, Ian looked up at us and told us more about him.

"My parents travel the world as archeologists. We're never really in one place for very long." He explained. "But they decided to drop me off here for a little while so I could, umm… take a break."

His hesitation with that last part made me think that he wasn't telling us the whole story. Ian went on to tell us that he was staying with his brother, and the museum curator, who was friends with Ian's parents, agreed to look after both of them. Robin questioned Ian about the attack from a few moments ago. Again, Ian was a little reluctant to answer, but after a few seconds he filled us in.

"I… have these weird powers. Ever since I was born I've been able to use this weird dark energy, or something. It's useful sometimes, but… using it can hurt sometimes." Ian told us.

His powers can hurt him sometimes? That was weird, and sounded awful. Just at that moment, Starfire flew up to him and asked if we could see the museum displays. Ian told her that it would not be any trouble at all, and that he could give us a tour of the artifacts that his parents had found over the years. Starfire was delighted by the response, though the others looked a little confused.

"Starfire, since when are you interested in ancient Earth artifacts?" Robin asked her.

"Since learning of my heritage." She answered with a smile, turning her head in my direction afterwards.

I smiled back and blushed slightly. Not too long ago, I had visited Starfire's homeworld, Tamaran, and learned the true origins of her people. Her kind were descended from the Hylian people who were forced from the Earth by some powerful evil force. I was also descended from the Hylian people; as such, she and I have more in common than we had first thought. It was also on Tamaran where she was able to obtain a sacred blade known as the Spirit's Sword. She did not have it with her at the moment though, it was back at the tower. While the Spirit's Sword's power is great, we recently discovered that for some strange reason, Starfire cannot use her ordinary powers while holding it. As such, she keeps it at Titans Tower and only uses for emergencies. As much as we had learned from our trip to Tamaran, I still wondered one thing: What _was_ the evil force that had banished the Hylians in the first place?

* * *

Ian invited us into the museum and led us through the halls to the area where the artifacts his parents had discovered were displayed. What we saw was amazing; there were ancient weapons, hieroglyphs, and many other ancient treasures. One of the displays contained hundreds of ancient jewels of all sorts of colors set up in rows. One jewel in particular caught my attention. It was slightly bigger than the other ones, and it was colored dark red. It looked like it had been broken off of a larger stone. There was something odd about it though; I felt like there was… something within it. As I thought this, I felt a twitch on my left shoulder, in the area where I had a very strange eye-shaped birthmark. Regardless, I caught up with the others as Ian continued the tour. Eventually, we stopped in front of a display case housing an ancient sword of some sort.

"Many of the artifacts my parents have dug up are valuable, but out of all of them, this is by far the most prized artifact they have found." Ian explained. "They call it the Four Sword."

"Why do they call it that?" Cybrog asked.

"Its explained on the tablet they found along with it." Ian answered as he pointed the the tablet right in front of the display. "My parents were able to translate it. Legends say that this sword has the power to split it's user into four versions of themseves, though since my parents found it, it has never done anything like that."

We were all impressed. It was an impressive looking sword; it had a faded gold hilt with a red gemstone in the center, and a faded silver blade. It reminded me of my Master Sword a bit. Starfire asked Ian why this artifact was more valuable than the others. His answer was because he was born shortly after the day that his parents discovered it.

"It had been sort of a family heirloom for a while, but they eventually decided to give it to the museum." Ian said. "But there is more to the legend. It is also said that sealed within the steel of the Four Sword… is a demon."

We were all surprised by that statement. The Four Sword had a demon sealed inside of it?! Was that even possible? And did that mean that the Sword was cursed or something?

"A demon?!" Starfire exclaimed.

"Yeah. The legends call it Vaati, a demon that was also known as the Wind Mage. Its said to have terrorized some area of the mediterranean in the past, but it was defeated and it's spirit was sealed into the sword." Ian continued. "Its only a legend, but… my mom thinks that it is true. She was the one who first came into contact with the sword, and she thinks that my dark powers may have come from the demon within it."

* * *

All of the sudden, the museum's alarm system went off! Someone or something had broken in. Was it the monster from before? Regardless, we all decided to search the building for anything suspicious. Ian suggested that we go to the surveillance room to find out what had happened. Fortunately for us, he had the key to get in. Once we were there, we found out that someone _had_ broken in; a man dressed in a black and white powersuit that looked like a light-bulb was attached to it. The others recognized him, as did I; it was a villain named Dr. Light, who used an energy manipulating powersuit to commit crimes. We hurried to the museum lobby to confront him. Fortunately, he had only been here long enough damage a few displays; and if we had anything to say about it, that would be _all_ he would damage!

"Sorry to disappoint you, but these items aren't for sale!" Robin shouted at him.

"Whoever said I was paying for them?!" Dr. Light asked mockingly.

He then threw an explosive charge at us. We managed to dodge it, although Ian was caught in the blast a little and covered his eyes from the flash. Robin sent several explosives of his own at the villain, and Cyborg shot his sonic cannon at him. He blocked Robin's attack with a barrier, and just barely dodged Cyborgs attack, only to end up right in front of me and my sword. I swiped at the lightbulb on his chest, hoping to damage it and weaken his attacks, but he dodged again.

"If you're not paying for the artifacts, then you'll pay for breaking in here!" I shouted at him.

This was my attempt at intimidating him, although it was not a very good attempt. I could tell because the others looked at me with unimpressed looks; and Beast Boy was even shaking his head. It did not matter much though, what mattered now was stopping this villain from taking anything. Starfire and Raven tried attacking Dr. Light with their various attacks. Raven tried to catch him in a snare of dark energy, and while it did freak him out a bit it failed to catch him. Starfire's starbolts made him stumble a little, but he still escaped into one of the halls. Beast Boy transformed into a cheetah and chased after him. The rest of us followed, and when we caught up to him, he was right in front of the display that housed the Four Sword.

"Here's what I came for. My employer will be quite pleased!" Dr. Light said to himself.

An employer?! He was hired by someone to steal the Four Sword?! I didn't know why, but we weren't going to let him! Once again, we all tried to bring him down. Robin went right in for some close combat, but Dr. Light created a sword and shield out of light energy to counterattack. During which, Cyborg and Starfire tried shooting him with their attacks, but Dr. Light just blocked them. As I was watching this, I decided to try my arrows again. I went into spirit mode and shot an arrow right at Dr. Light's sword arm. This time however, instead of shooting a flaming arrow, the arrow I shot was enveloped by a wave of freezing energy, and when it hit it froze Dr. Light's arm solid! Everyone in the room was surprised, including me.

"So wait… Link can shoot flaming arrows _and _freezing arrows?!" Robin asked exuberantly.

I shrugged my shoulders in response. To be honest, there was a lot about my powers that I did not know, but I figured that if it helped, that's all that matters.

"Heh heh! Wow dude, is there anything you can't do?!" Beast Boy asked as he bro-fisted me.

I awkwardly laughed at the comment, and in the distance, Starfire also giggled lightly. Though I did notice a rather sour look on Robin's face for some reason.

However, there was no time to celebrate, because Dr. Light had managed to blast the ice off of his arm, and then set off an explosive flash that temporarily blinded all of us. He then focused his attention on the Four Sword again, and was about to break its display. Before he could though, he was hit with a wave of purplish energy and thrown to the side. He had taken a while to catch up, but Ian had managed to keep Dr. Light from the display, although he was clutching his hand in pain from the intensity of his attack.

"Get… away… from that sword!" Ian warned Dr. Light weakly.

Dr. Light wasn't listening though, and he simply blasted Ian against the wall. Ian yelled in pain, but was still able to get up afterwards. Dr. Light was now using a light beam to cut a hole in the display, so he could take the Four Sword. Ian went closer though. We warned him not too, even though we could barely see.

"Don't… touch… that… sword!" Ian warned once again.

"What are you going to do about it, shrimp?" Dr. Light taunted.

All of the sudden, all of the lights in the museum seemed to dim, and we were all able to feel a chill in the air. By now we were all able to see again, and what we saw shocked us. Dark energy was surrounding Ian, and the chilling breeze had blown his hair back, revealing a completely red left eye, and by now his other eye had also turned dark red. What we noticed most though was that a black eye-shaped mark had appeared on his forehead. Dr. Light had noticed this too, and was quaking in fear. Ian's disposition had gone from seemingly calm, to sinisterly vicious; and he blasted another dark energy attack at Dr. Light. But instead of simply knocking him down, it lifted him up into the air and began dragging him towards Ian, who now had a very wicked look on his face.

"Please! Put me down! I surrender!" Dr. Light begged.

"It's too late for surrender now…" Ian said in a horrifyingly demonic voice. "Now you will pay for your ignorance!"

Ian was about to do something horrible, I could feel it! Raven used her powers to try and get Dr. Light out of Ian's grip, while I shot an ice arrow at Ian, which froze part of his body and knocked him unconscious. Robin, Cyborg and I went over to Dr. Light, who was curled into a fetal position and babbling in fear. After we had apprehended him, we turned our attention back to Ian. Starfire had used her starbolts to melt the ice that had froze him, though he was still unconscious. We decided to take him back with us to the tower after we had sent Dr. Light to jail.

* * *

Once back at the tower, we took Ian to the infirmary, where he woke up after a few hours. We a bit cautious of him, but it did not seem like he was a threat right now. In fact, he looked a little confused.

"Ugh… what happened? Where am I?" He asked us.

"You're in Titans Tower." Robin told him. "You went unconscious after our battle against Dr. Light, and we brought you here."

Ian asked what 'Titans Tower' was, and I told him that it was not only the Teen Titan's headquarters, but it was also our home and were we all lived. Ian assumed that that was what the gigantic T-shaped tower in the distance had been. However, there was a much more important matter to discuss.

"Do you even remember what happened? Or what you did?" Cyborg asked him.

"No. All I remember was telling that Light guy to keep away from the sword. I got really angry, and then… I blacked out." Ian answered. "Why? What happened?"

"Oh, not much… except that you flipped out and turned all demon-like and stuff!" Beast Boy exclaimed.

"Demon-like?" Ian questioned. "Oh no…. it happened again, didn't it?"

"_What_ happened again?" Robin inquired.

Ian looked down at his hands with a worried look on his face. He was quiet for a bit, but soon told us what he had meant.

"Well… remember that dark energy that I said I could use? Well, sometimes when I get really angry, I can lose control of it, and… it kind of takes control of me. I become something… not human." Ian confessed. "And every time afterwards, I never remember anything I did when I lost control."

We were all rather shocked by what we had heard. Ian seemed like such a calm and collected person, but what we had seen at the museum… it was scary. It was similar to what had happened to me about six months ago. Starfire had told me everything; about how I was possessed by something evil after my heart had been broken, and I turned into a demonic version of myself and tried to kill all of my friends. I don't remember doing any of it, but the knowledge of what I did still haunts me.

"I didn't… hurt anyone, did I?" Ian asked, looked frightened.

"Don't worry. We were able to snap you out of it before you did anything that you'd might regret." Raven answered him.

Ian sighed in relief. However, we mentioned to Ian that power like his is very dangerous, and that there may not always be people like us around to help him. Ian was aware of this, and mentioned that the real reason that his parents left him here was not only so he could get a break from traveling, but also in the hopes that it might help him get his powers under control. Apparently, it wasn't working too well.

"Hey, maybe we could help you!" I insisted.

"Huh? Dude, how could we possibly help this guy with powers like _that_?!" Beast Boy asked out loud.

"Well… Raven has similar powers. Maybe she could help him." I mentioned.

"Raven is rather experienced with keeping her emotions under control. Sounds like an excellent idea!" Starfire agreed.

"Well, I guess I _could_ teach him my methods of control. Though I never said that I _would_." Raven said rather coldly.

A response like this was kind of expected from Raven. She wasn't the kind of person to trust new people right away. Plus, Ian's powers were dangerous, and it seemed apparent that there was sort of evil connection to them. When Ian heard her response, he dropped his head in disappointment. When Raven saw this, her expression changed; as if she felt some remorse for him.

"…But I will." Raven told him.

Most of us were surprised to hear her say that, including Ian. He looked up at her, and he now had a slight look of hope on his face.

"You'll… really help me?" Ian asked.

"Yeah. But on one condition. That you follow my instructions _exactly_." She answered.

Ian nodded his head in agreement, and thanked her for giving him a chance. She did mention however, that Ian's powers were not exactly the same as hers, and she couldn't be certain if her methods of control would work for his powers. Ian assured her that he was willing to try anything.

"Then we'll start first thing tomorrow morning. Until then, just get some rest." Raven said before she left the room.

The rest of us also left the room to let Ian rest. After what he had been through, he needed it. The others were a bit uncertain as to whether it was a good idea or not to have Ian stay with us at the tower, but Starfire and I were glad to have made a new friend.

* * *

Elsewhere, in some shady part of the city, the monster that we had faced earlier ducked into a nearby alleyway. None of us were there to see this, but the monster was greeted by another figure; a pale man in a red cloak and white leotard with colorless hair and one pointed ear. His name was Ghirahim, a Demon Lord and former accomplice of Slade. He stepped closer to the monster, and the beast slightly knelt before him.

"You failed to secure the blade, as did the villain I hired. But do not worry about this loss, my pet… as if you _could_. Heh heh." Ghirahim said. "It is only a matter of time before I secure the Four Sword. And then, the plan concocted by me and my _partner_ can begin!"

Ghirahim vilely chuckled to himself as he stroked the head of the monster that knelt before him. What plan was he speaking of? And who was his _partner_?


	2. Chapter 2: Link's Nightmare

Chapter Two: Link's Nightmare

The following morning, we were all gathered in the ops room's kitchen for breakfast. Well, except for Raven and Ian; the two of them were in Raven's room, with Raven attempting to teach Ian how to control his powers. We were all nearly done with breakfast before the two of them walked in. They both had somewhat blank looks on their faces, although Ian's showed just a little bit more emotion than Raven's. They both walked into the kitchen, over to one of the drink dispensers we had in there. Starfire got up and floated over to them.

"Good morning Raven. Ian. How was your time together today?" Starfire asked.

"It was… all right." Ian answered. "It was a lot more… quiet than I had thought."

"What did the two of you do exactly?" I asked them from across the room.

"Nothing too big. Just some simple meditation techniques and a few incantations." Raven answered.

"It _was_ a little boring…" Ian mentioned.

"You can stop anytime you want, you know." Raven told him.

"No no no! If it helps me get my powers under control, the boredom is worth it!" Ian said, laughing kind of awkwardly afterwards.

I noticed something a little familiar about that kind of laugh. It was similar to the kind of laugh that I would do around Starfire, during the moments where she would make me blush. I wondered… did Ian have a crush on Raven? Maybe he wanted to continue the lessons for a reason other than just to control his powers. But who could say?

Starfire asked Raven and Ian if they would like to join us for breakfast. They both refused her invitation, with Raven saying that all they needed was some herbal tea, which was what the drink dispenser was filled with. She handed a cup to Ian, but the moment he began to drink, he spit it out.

"Blech! How can you drink this?!" Ian asked.

"It will help you stay calm, which will help you control your powers." Raven told him.

At that comment, Ian's eyes widened and he quickly gulped down the tea; afterwards he had a disgusted look on his face. Ian must've _really _wanted to get his powers under control. After what we witnessed at the museum yesterday, who could blame him? After everyone had finished breakfast, we all went about the tower to do our own things. Before we left though, Starfire told me that she wished to train with her new sword some more later. I happily agreed, and she flew off to her room. Until then, I just went for a walk around the tower like I usually do.

* * *

I was in the hallway when I saw a small glint of light right below my neck. I knew what it was; it was my spirit gem, my most prized possession. It was a spherical gemstone with two small lights circling around inside of it; one blue one, and one green one. It formed around three years ago, on the day that I first met Starfire and the others. I had accidentally caught one of Starfire's starbolts, and that caused a piece of both of our spirit's to fuse together into this gem. I was still not entirely sure why it had formed, but regardless, whenever I had the spirit gem with me, I always felt the kind of feeling that I get whenever I'm with Starfire; a happy feeling. The thing is, Starfire had made it into a necklace for me. It had kept her safe when I had been turned evil, and she was certain that as long as I had it I would never turn evil again. I wasn't sure if that was true or not, but I still wore it all the time just to be safe.

I was so distracted from looking at my gem that I did not even notice that Ian had just walked up to me. He called my name to get my attention, which startled me.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to surprise you." Ian said.

"It's all right, I'm kind of used to it." I responded. "Was there something you wanted?"

"Uhh… yeah, there was. I have a question." Ian asked, pausing for a moment to look around. "What's the deal with you and Starfire? Are you two like… a couple or something?"

"What?!" I exclaimed, my face having turned light red at the question. "No no, she and I are just friends! _Really_ good friends! And… I enjoy her company. Why do you ask?"

"Well… I had been hoping that I could ask you for some advice." Ian responded.

"Advice? About what?" I asked him.

"Advice about… well… umm… _girls_." Ian answered.

Advice about _girls?!_ Why was he coming to _me_ for that?! He went on to say that he had thought that Starfire and I were together, so he thought that I'd be the best person to help him. I asked him why he'd want advice about girls, and he went on to confess that, after their lesson, he may have developed a tiny crush on Raven. I knew it! He and Raven were already so similar, so for Ian to have a crush on her was not that surprising for me.

"I just don't know if she'd like me back. She doesn't really seem like the kind of person who would be into that kind of thing…" Ian told me.

"Well, you could just try being friends with her first. Raven has feelings, she just doesn't show it." I advised him.

"Thanks. I'll try that. Considering that it feels kind of…uhh… 'uninviting' to be around you, I thought that you could give me the best advice. My powers kind of give off the same kind of thing." Ian responded.

His comment made me a little depressed, but I knew what he was talking about. All of my life, people have gotten this 'unwelcome' feeling whenever they're near me. As such, most people tend to avoid me, and because of this, I had no friends when I was growing up. At least until I met Starfire that is; she was the first person to ever open up to me. She's not only my best friend, she was my first friend ever. Ian noticed my depressed look and insisted that he did not mean any offense. I assured him that it was no trouble, and quickly regained my good mood.

I was wondering _why_ he wanted advice though. Ian said that Valentine's Day was coming up and he wanted to ask Raven 'out'. Valentine's Day? What was that? Ian was surprised that I had never heard of it, especially since I hang around with Starfire so much. He said he'd talk to me later and headed off in the other direction. I was curious about this 'Valentine's Day', so during our training, I asked Starfire about it. She told me that it was a holiday that celebrated love and couples being together. It sounded great, although later, Raven mentioned that it was usually a waste of time; not a very good sign for Ian. Beast Boy though mentioned to me that Valentine's Day happened to be Starfire's favorite Earth holiday, and if that was the case I _had_ to do something special for her! Beast Boy suggested that I start by making her a Valentine's Day card. I went to get some art supplies and then rushed to my room to work on it.

* * *

I worked on the card until it was nighttime, and it was still nowhere near finished. I had been working for so long that I had fallen asleep at the table I was working on, and it wasn't very long before I began dreaming. My dream started out nice at first; with Starfire and I sitting together at Lanayru's Spring, which was near where I was raised. I looked into her sparkling green eyes, and she leaned closer to me, about to kiss me. It was only a dream, but it still made my heart beat uncontrollably. However, just before her lips touched mine, she and the entire spring disappeared, leaving me in total darkness. I quickly stood up and reached for my sword, but it had disappeared too! My tunic had also changed; it looked slightly darker than before. Just then, a few feet in front of me, a red heart-shaped object appeared and began beating. To my surprise, a wicked laugh came out of nowhere, though I assumed that it had come from whatever was in front of me.

"Quite a nice dream you were having… too bad it will never come true…" The thing said to me, laughing wickedly once again.

"H-how would you know?! Who are you?!" I demanded.

It did not answer at first, instead it simply kept laughing. Then to my surprise, a pair of horns appeared on top of it, along with four other horns on each of it's sides. The object began to turn from red to purple, a very sinister shade of purple. It then answered my question.

"You will find out soon enough! Heh heh heh heh!" It said.

I then felt a horrible sting in my left arm, and I saw two eyes open up from the middle of the heart-shaped object; two sinister eyes that felt like they were staring right through my soul. More horns appeared underneath of the horns on it's side, which now made the heart look like a monster's face. Then to my horror, eight red tentacles came out of the object's back, and it then lunged towards me with it's 'mouth' wide open. I woke up with a jolt at that moment, still sitting at the same table where I was making Starfire's Valentine card. I was sweating horribly, and trying to catch my breath. My dream had turned into a nightmare, although this wasn't anything new for me; I've had similar nightmares all of my life, but they had been nothing like this! Still, it was _only_ a nightmare… right?

* * *

It was morning when I had woken up, even though the nightmare only seemed like it lasted a few minutes. I got up and dusted myself off, then headed for the ops room. As it would just so happen, Starfire had been heading there too and we ran into each other; almost literally, as I was still a little groggy from my nightmare.

"Oh, good morning Link." Starfire said while yawning. "Oh my! You do not look so well."

She had noticed that my hair was a mess from sleeping on the table, and my eyes were a little bloodshot. Though I noticed that she didn't look too well either; her hair was almost as messy as mine, and she had small bags under her eyes.

"I… didn't sleep so well last night. I had a nightmare." I told her.

"Really? Me too." She responded.

She had a nightmare too?! I was about to ask her what it had been about, but right at that moment the tower's alarm sounded. We all rushed to the ops room to see what was going on. Robin told us that the bank was being robbed by Mumbo; Mumbo Jumbo to be specific. We've encountered him before; he was a magician who used his magic to steal valuables. Raven and Ian were a bit late arriving, so Robin had to fill them in before we left.

"So what do you say Ian? Feel like helping us?" Robin asked him.

We all gathered in anticipation for his answer. Ian wasn't sure if it was a good idea for him to come, as he did not think his powers were under control yet.

"Don't worry Ian. If anything bad happens we'll be there to help you." Raven reassured him.

He looked around at all of us, and saw that we were all nodding in agreement. Ian smiled, and then pulled up his hood, looking confident.

"Alright then. I'm in!" He said.

Everyone was pleased with his answer, even Raven, although it was hard to tell. With that settled, we all headed off on our mission. Mumbo may have loads of tricks up his sleeves, but with Ian on the team, we now had a trick for _him!_


	3. Chapter 3: Robin's Threat

Chapter Three: Robin's Threat

It was around noon when we got back from our mission, and we had successfully subdued Mumbo and sent him off to jail. The battle itself was pretty crazy, with Mumbo using magic to poof up all sorts of crazy stuff. One of the most notable things I remember is that when I tried to attack him, he conjured up a flock of chickens to attack me. While that may not seem that bad, being pecked by a bunch of angry chickens hurts… a _lot_! Fortunately, he did not count on us having a new friend with us, and somehow Ian's powers were able to counteract Mumbo's magic. I was still covered in bruises from where the chickens had pecked me, and the others had similar casualties. Ian in particular was still trembling from the encounter.

"Hey Ian, are you okay?" I asked him.

"Oh. Uhh… yeah, I'm fine. I'm just still a little worn out from using my powers in that battle." Ian answered. "Do you face crazy guys like that often?"

We all nodded our heads in response, and Ian softly said that that is what he had figured.

"It almost looked as if you were going to lose it again during the fight. It's a good thing that you didn't." Raven told him.

"Yeah. I guess your methods really are working for me." Ian responded. "Although…"

"Although _what?_" Robin asked him.

"While I was trying to control myself, I… I heard a voice in my head…" Ian told us. "That's never happened before."

"What did it say?" I asked him.

"It said… that my efforts are in vain… that it will soon control me… and everything else…" He answered.

Ian did not know what that meant, and the rest of us didn't either. However, Starfire inquired that perhaps the demon sealed into the Four Sword, Vaati, may be involved. That could be a possibility, as Ian's powers originated from the demon, and Vaati might have some sort of influence over Ian. That possibility only made it harder for us to trust him. However, Raven told him not to worry about to much and to focus more on his training. Ian grinned slightly and went with Raven back to her room for more training.

Starfire was a little worried about my injuries, but I told her that it was nothing to worry about. Still, she had never imagined that chickens could be so vicious, and neither did I. She asked me if I would like to join her in sword training, but I told her that I had something that I was working on. She wanted to know what it was, and I simply told her that it was a surprise. She gave a very small sigh of relief, and asked if I would like to join her later. Of course I agreed, then she smiled and told me that she'd see me later. She had probably thought at first that I was doing some sort of crime-fighting related research project, like Robin usually does. Though I think that she'd know by now that I do not obsess over that kind of thing like Robin does. I guess she compares me to him so much that she just assumes these things.

* * *

Of course by 'surprise' I meant the Valentine's Day card that I was making for her. I know it was only a simple little card, but for her, I wanted to make it as perfect as I possibly could. The moment that I got to my room, I continued working on the Valentine card. While I was working some of the others came by and knocked on my door, wondering if I was alright. I told them I was fine and got back to my work. I had spend the rest of the day and most of the next day working on it, until I decided that it looked as good as I could get it. It was a heart-shaped card rimmed with a blue rim around it, and inside I had drawn the faces of both me and Starfire. Inside it I wrote a simple message, one that would show her that I cared. I exited my room and went to look for Starfire; I really hoped that she would like what I made her.

As I was walking down the hall, Robin happened to pass by. He asked me what I had with me.

"Oh. Hi Robin. I just have a Valentine's Day card that I'm going to give to Starfire. I made it myself." I told him.

"Uhh… wait a minute. That Valentine is for Starfire?" He asked me.

"Yeah. Ian told me a few days ago that Valentine's Day was coming up. I heard from the others that on Valentine's Day it is a common practice to give those you care about heartfelt letters. I care about Starfire the most, so I made one for her." I answered.

Robin's face suddenly went from a curious look to an angry one, and his fists were clenched.

"Well, if you know what's good for you, you won't give it to her!" He told me angrily.

What?! I asked him why I couldn't give her the letter, as I did not understand why I shouldn't. For his answer, he just said that it was because he was telling me not to. I did not understand that either.

"Starfire is _my_ girlfriend, and I want you to stay away from her!" He demanded.

"But… she broke up with you six months ago…" I reminded him.

"And now we're back together, so stay away!" He responded.

I wasn't able to tell if that was a lie or not, but even so, I only wanted to give her the card to be nice; she always likes receiving nice things.

"Even if that is true, I just want to give it to her as a gesture of friendship. What's wrong with that?" I told him.

"I don't care! Just stay away!" He told me again.

"But… I'm not expecting to get a hug or a kiss or anything. I just want to see her smile." I said.

That comment seemed to just make Robin angrier. He confronted me and pointed his finger straight at me, with a very nasty look on his face.

"I DON'T CARE! JUST STAY AWAY FROM HER! THAT'S AN ORDER!" Robin shouted at me.

An order? An _order?! _I did not see how giving Starfire a Valentine's Day card would cause any trouble whatsoever! It's not like it would bring the world to an end or anything! When Robin gives orders they are usually for a good reason, but _this?! _There was no logically good reason behind this!

"NO." I responded right in his face with an emphasis.

"_No?!_ What do you mean _no?! _When I give orders, you follow them!" He shouted.

"What you are giving me is not an order! What you're giving me is a_ threat_; and for something that will not cause any harm whatsoever!" I told him angrily. "You may be the leader of the team, but you do _NOT_ order around my social life! I am giving this Valentine card to Starfire, and you have no say in the matter!"

I turned around, prepared to continue looking for Starfire, when all of the sudden Robin grabbed the card I had made. Right in front of me, he crumpled it up and tossed it aside! The sight of what just happened shocked me, and I swear I could've felt a slight sting in my left arm around where my birthmark was.

"Why did you do that?! I spent three days making that you jerk!" I asked angrily.

"You disobeyed an order. _This_ is what you get for it." He answered. "Besides, I don't want Starfire to be hanging out with a _monster_."

What he had just said had really cut deep. He was likely referring to when I had been turned evil six months ago.

"What? But… but I'm not a monster." I responded weakly. "I… I'm human. I'm a hero."

"Heroes don't go berserk and try to kill everyone just because they're upset, like you did six months ago! You're dangerous Link. We were better off without you." He told me.

"But… that wasn't my fault… I was possessed… or something…" I said.

"It doesn't matter. It was _your_ body, _your _actions, and _you _did it!" He responded. "Maybe you should have stayed that way. We don't need you here, you're just a… a… a _troq_!"

I was surprised by what he had just called me. The word 'troq' was a word that off-worlders used which meant 'nothing' or 'useless'. He probably learned that word from Starfire, like I did, but I've never heard him use it before. Starfire considered it to be one of the worst things you could call a person.

"Don't think that I don't know what that means! I'm nothing, huh?! So I guess me doing away with Slade, who I may remind you was _your_ mortal enemy, was _nothing_, huh?!" I asked him rhetorically.

"We could've done it just fine without you! There hasn't been a villain that we weren't able to beat without you!" Robin claimed.

"Well if that's what you think, then I'll just leave!" I raged. "I don't want to live in a place where I forbidden from being around my best friend!"

* * *

I stormed off back to my room to grab all of my weapons and then headed for the front door. Robin was standing in the tower's entry room, and as I walked by I could see that his expression hadn't changed. This whole 'stay away from Starfire' thing wasn't to prevent any disaster or something, it was just Robin being jealous! He was lucky I was wearing my Spirit Gem, because the last time I got jealous, I nearly killed him.

"Oh yeah, and you can take your stupid communicator back too!" I told him as I threw aside. "When someone like Ghirahim or something attacks, don't bother trying to contact me. _You_ deal with it!"

With that I slammed the doors shut. Ghirahim was one of the few villains that we have not truly been able to defeat, so that probably left something for Robin to think about. I decided to head to Lanayru's Spring to try and calm down. Fortunately, the trip there would not take as long as before, because I found out that I could use my spirit mode powers on my boots, which would allow me to run nearly three times as fast. That would make my journey only take a few hours, with breaks in-between of course. I set off for the spring, but as it would turn out, I was not the only one to have heard everything that Robin had said to me.

* * *

**This chapter is not very long, but it involves an argument between Link and Robin that ultimately sets the stage for what will happen later. The next chapter will be narrated by Starfire.**


	4. Chapter 4: Starfire's Intervention

Chapter Four: Starfire's Intervention

(Starfire's Narration)

An argument had broken out between Link and Robin within one of the halls of Titans Tower… and I had heard the entire ordeal. Earlier, Link had mentioned that he was working on a surprise of some sort; and I now knew that surprise had been a Valentine's day card for me. I had been in the hallway when this was mentioned, though neither Link nor Robin had known I was there, as I kept out of sight near one of the corners of the hall. I thought it very nice that Link had made me something for the Valentine's day, especially since he had apparently been working on it for three days. I was quite eager to see what he had written for me, but I had then heard Robin tell Link not to give it to me. At first I was a little shocked and wondered why, but then I realized that it was likely out of jealousy. This would make sense, as Robin _was_ my ex-boyfriend.

Robin then went on to tell Link that I was his girlfriend again, saying that we had gotten back together. That liar! Robin and I were certainly _not_ back together! And even if we were, was there any real harm in Link giving me something nice on this day? After all, it is not like Robin had remembered that today was Valentine's day; ordinarily he only remembers when it is too late, and when he _does_ remember he is almost always preoccupied with some other activity… like training. Link claimed that he only wanted to give me the card because I was his friend and that I meant a lot to him, and that he was not expecting anything like a hug or a kiss. To be honest though, he probably would've gotten both from me, just for being so nice. Robin though shouted at Link that he did not care and just wanted Link to stay away from me, emphasizing that what he was saying was an order. I think Robin was going too far there, and apparently, so did Link, for he responded to Robin's 'order' with a flattened out 'NO'. He then told Robin that while he respected him as the team leader, Robin did not have the right to order around his social life, saying that he was going to give me the Valentine card that he made regardless of what Robin said. As Link turned back around in his attempt to locate me, I was glad that everything had been settled. However, Robin had other ideas.

Without any warning, Robin swiped the card from Link's hand and crushed it. Both Link and myself were shocked by what Robin had just done. Link asked why he would do such a thing; calling Robin a 'jerk' afterwards. Robin replied that since Link had disobeyed an order, that this was what he got, even though his 'order' was more of a 'demand'. But then he went on to say that he did not want me to hang around a 'monster'. A _monster?! _Link may have turned evil six months ago due to hurt emotions and outside influence, but he was certainly _not_ a monster! Link tried to tell that to Robin, but he disagreed, saying that it was still Link's actions that almost hurt all of us. But what really shocked me was what he said to him next. He told Link that maybe he should have stayed that way, and then… he called Link… a troq. Did I really just hear what I thought I did?! Troq is a very hurtful name which means 'nothing'. Robin was calling Link worthless, even after everything that Link has done to help us! A moment later, Link suggested that he simply get his things and leave. I did not want Link to leave; not again!

* * *

A moment later, at the tower door, Link threw his communicator to the floor and told Robin that if someone like Ghirahim attacked for him not to try contacting him. He then stepped outside and slammed the tower doors. Robin was still standing in the entry room, likely thinking about what had just happened.

"Well…. good riddance…" I heard him say under his breath.

I was not going to stand for this! I quietly walked up behind Robin, and abruptly cleared my throat, loud enough so that Robin could hear. He turned around in surprise, and began to act nervous at the sight of me. He was no doubt able to see the very annoyed look on my face. If Link's actions had not left a mark upon him, then I would make certain that mine would!

"Oh! Uhh… hey Starfire. I was just… uhh… sending Link to… pick something up for me." Robin told me hastily, nervously laughing afterwards.

First he lied to Link, and now he was lying to _me?! _Was this really the same boy that I had fallen for while Link was away on his journey?! If so, then he certainly was not acting like that same boy!

"Robin. I heard everything." I told him harshly.

"Uhh… everything?" He responded with guilt in his voice.

"Yes. _Everything._" I repeated.

Robin was lucky that Link had still been wearing his spirit gem necklace during their argument, otherwise Link could have lost it again and things would have been a lot worse. However, Robin was still about to get a scolding from _me_.

"I cannot believe that you treated Link so horribly simply because he wanted to give me a Valentine card!" I shouted at him.

I then raised up a crumpled up piece of red paper. It was the Valentine card that Link had made me, and the same one that Robin had crumpled up a few minutes ago.

"I assume that this is the card that you did not want me to see?" I asked him rhetorically. "Well, I am going to 'un-crumple' it and read it right now!"

It took the card and carefully smoothed it out. I then opened it, and what I saw was heartwarming. The inside of the card was lined with glitter, and Link had drawn small cartoonish versions of his face and mine on each side. And in-between, Link had written something. It was brief, but touching:

_Dear Starfire,_

_Having you as a friend is the best thing I could've ever asked for. And even though we can never be together in "that way", know that you will always have a special place in my heart._

_Love, Link._

It was still a little crumpled, and it was not a whole lot, but for all of the time he had spent making it, and for what he had written, I could not help but feel touched by his gift.

"Oh Link… you are such a sweetheart." I said to myself under my breath.

I then looked up, or rather, _down_ at Robin; once again with an annoyed look on my face. The fact that he had ruined such a nice gift that Link had made for me only annoyed me even more.

"Robin, why must you behave like such a klorbag around Link? Especially when he has done nothing wrong?" I asked Robin.

"Starfire, he's trying to break us up." Robin told me.

Robin seemed to be forgetting that he and I had already broken up; and after what had just happened it is doubtful that we would _ever_ get back together again! I held up the card Link had made for me, right in Robin's face.

"Why don't you look at this and _then_ tell me he is trying to break up_ anything!_" I yelled at him.

He took a moment to read what Link had written for me, squinting his eyes in order to see past the wrinkles in the card that _he_ had made. His expression did not change.

"_That's_ what he wrote? Wow… that's… really pathetic." He responded.

I could not believe him! Calling the Valentine card Link had made for me pathetic; he was one to talk! This was a better gift than _anything_ Robin had ever given me on the Valentine's Day, and that was not much.

"Link was right. You _are_ a jerk." I told him.

I decided that I had had enough of this, and that I was going to go after Link; I knew that he needed me right now. I needed to get the Spirit's Sword first. I was not sure how, but something was telling me that I was going to need it. As I was walking away, Robin told me that after what had just happened that he was not going to let 'that monster' back on the team.

"Do _NOT_ call Link a monster! The one acting like a monster right now is _YOU_, Robin!" I told him severely.

I knew for a fact that Link was not a monster; he had only acted like that before because of a curse that has afflicted him since the day he was born. In truth, Link was just a misunderstood little boy who was in desperate need of 'the hug'. I seemed to be the only one who was truly able to see this. Everyone else either treated Link like an outcast, like he was not human; either that or they just avoided him altogether. Why I was the only one who did not see him like that, I did not know. But I knew I had to help him. I had almost abandoned him in the past, and I was not going to make that mistake again.

* * *

I made my way to the tower door, carrying the Spirit's Sword in it's scabbard on my back (like Link does with his sword), and opened the twin doors. Robin was behind me, still telling me that he was not going to let Link back in the tower. I knew that Robin was not going to change his mind any time soon, so I told him that if that was the case then I would not bring Link back; I would go with him.

"What?! Star, you can't be serious!" Robin exclaimed.

"I am _quite_ serious." I told him as I turned to face him. "So unless you change your mind about Link not being allowed back here, then you will likely not see me again for some time."

With that I stepped outside and closed the tower doors, certain that what I had just said would give Robin something to think about, and a reason to let Link back on the team. I took off for Lanayru's Spring; I was certain that that is where Link was headed, and I knew that with his spirit powers he would be able to get there much faster than before. As I was flying there, I began to think about what Link had told me during the morning of the day before; about him having a nightmare. The fact that I had also suffered from a mare of the night made me wonder if it was more than just a coincidence. I do not know what Link's nightmare had been about, but in mine, I had seen this heart-shaped being that had sported spikes on it's sides and top. It told me that I was interfering in matters that I should not be, and that I should give up on the boy. By 'boy' I knew it meant Link, and when I told it that I would not, it first morphed into a hideous tentacled form, and then to my horror, it morphed into a dark figure that was shaped like Link but still sporting the tentacles. While shaped like Link it told me that my actions are in vain, and that the 'unbreakable spirit' would soon be broken. I had woken up at that moment, but I had wondered what it meant by 'unbreakable spirit'; and how could something 'unbreakable' be broken?

* * *

While I was still pondering all of this, my communicator began to ring. I was still high in the air but I decided to answer it, although I already knew who it was.

"What is it Robin?" I asked into the communicator.

"Starfire, please come back to the tower!" Robin told me.

Robin was begging me to come back. While ordinarily I would find that to be sweet, after the horrible things he told Link anything he could say to me right now simply turned from sweet to sour instantly. I asked him if he had changed his mind about banishing Link from the tower, although knowing Robin, he had most certainly not changed his mind yet.

"No. I'm not letting him back on the team." He answered me.

"Then I am not coming back." I told him abruptly.

"But Starfire…" He began to say.

"Do not give me the _'buts'_' Robin!" I interrupted. "Perhaps you should have though about this before calling Link a troq!"

"But… we need you here Starfire…_ I_ need you…" Robin told me softly.

"I am sorry Robin, but Link needs me more than you do right now." I told him. "Until you decide to apologize to Link for your outrageous behavior towards him and let him return, then I am not coming back. Good-bye."

With that, I not only hung up on him, but I also disconnected the transmissions to my communicator; at least temporarily. I knew that the others would do fine without me. Certainly Beast Boy and Cyborg could entertain one another, and Raven had Ian to teach and to keep her company right now. And Robin… has managed to get along just fine without me around before, so I knew he would be okay. I was about halfway to the spring right now, so I put my communicator away and continued my flight.

* * *

It was around the time of dusk when I arrived at Lanayru Village, which had been Link's hometown in the past. I immediately headed for the spring, through the same path that Link and I had taken the last time we were here. As I approached the Spring, I saw Link standing in front of a large mound of soil in front of the spring's edge. I remembered what it was; that was the area where his deceased mother had been buried. Long ago, she had protected Link from being abducted by Slade, and was injured in the process. Even so, she still traveled here, far from the city, to find a safe place for her son. It was here that she had passed away, but the light spirit Lanayru agreed to look after the boy. From then on he had been raised by his village's swordsman, Roland Nobleman. At least... until the day Slade came and killed him. I was able to hear Link speaking to the mound, most likely talking to his mother, even though she was not really there. I peeked out from behind one of the trees and listened in on his… umm…_ conversation_.

"Hi mom… sorry I haven't visited in a while… do you mind if I sit with you?" Link asked.

There was no one around to say no, so he just sat down on the mound. Anyone else who may have heard that may have thought that Link was crazy, but I knew the truth. He looked very depressed. I slowly came out from behind the trees and made my way towards him.

"I got into an argument with a friend today… all because I was trying to be nice to… someone I like." Link said to his mother. "I really wish you were here right now mom. I… could really use a hug…"

Link folded his arms around himself in an attempt to comfort himself, and he started crying. I was right behind him at that moment, and without a moment's pause, I placed my arms around him. He quickly opened his eyes and raised his head back up. He turned his head around to see my face next to his, and I smiled.

"Starfire?! What are you doing here?" He asked me looking very surprised.

"I followed you here after you had your argument with Robin. I overheard the whole ordeal." I answered him.

"Oh… you heard that?" Link questioned, looking a bit guilty. "Umm… well… I'm sorry I yelled at your boyfriend like that."

"Link, Robin is not my boyfriend! And after what I witnessed he may never be again! _He_ is the one who needs to say 'sorry'!" I told him in a slightly angry tone.

"What?! You're mad at _him?! _And not… at me?" Link asked.

"I could never be mad at you Link. You are my best friend." I told him in a kind tone.

I then asked him if I could sit down with him. Of course, Link did not mind, so I took the scabbard that held the Spirit's Sword off of my back and placed it against the mount. I then sat down, only two feet or so from Link.

"By the way, I read the Valentine card you made for me Link. After I… umm… 'restored' it." I told him.

"Oh! Well… umm… did you like it?" He asked me.

He had placed his hand on his other arm and his eyes looked downward. I saw that his face when beginning to turn light red, and I had a feeling it would turn brighter from my answer.

"I _loved_ it! It was nicer than anything Robin had ever done for me on the Valentine's Day… and that is not much." I answered him in delight. "I am very glad that I have made a difference in your life Link! You are simply the sweetest person I have ever known!"

As I had thought, Link's entire face lit up from my reaction. He thanked me for the kind words; mentioning that it was not much, but he was glad that I had liked it.

"Well, it meant a lot to _me_. And I thought it very mean for Robin to ruin it like he did. I was very surprised by his behavior. All you wanted to do was make me happy, and Robin was being a klorbag. I am sorry…" I told Link sincerely.

"It's okay Starfire. A lot of people act like that around me, so it's not entirely his fault." Link said. "Still… I don't feel like going back to Titans Tower right now…"

"Well, if that is the case, I will accompany you wherever you decide to go." I told him.

Link was surprised by what I had just said, and asked me if I had really offered to travel with him. I nodded, and told him that I did not wish for him to travel all alone like he had done the last time.

"But what about everyone back at the tower?" He inquired.

"I am sure that they will be fine without me for a while." I assured him.

Right at that moment, the spring in front of us began to glow, and we heard a voice come from it. We both knew this was the voice of Lanayru, but it had caught us by surprise nonetheless.

"That is just as well… for I have a quest for the two of you to undertake…" Lanayru said to us.

A quest? For both of us? What possible task could there be that Lanayru wanted us _both_ to do?

"Across the Atlantic, in a region of eternal mist, you will find a forgotten place known as the Phantom Island…" He told us. "There is something there that I want you two to see… something that may help to quell the situation at hand…"

Lanayru wanted us to journey across the ocean to find… something that would help us? I knew that Lanayru was Link's guardian, but neither Link nor I thought that he would show this much concern for a matter so simple.

"Start by journeying to Steel City… you will find one there who will help you. Good luck." Lanayru finished before vanishing back into the spring.

A journey for both Link and me?! I was confused, but excited! I greatly enjoyed adventuring with Link, much like the journey he and I had while we were on Tamaran a while back.

"We may as well go on this quest. And I happen to be quite familiar with Steel City." I told Link.

"Starfire, are you sure? What about the rest of our friends? Shouldn't we bring them along?" He asked me.

"I would prefer it if only the two of us partook in the quest. Besides… I do not feel like talking to Robin right now." I answered him; crossing my arms at my last statement.

"Umm… okay, but the Atlantic is on the other side of the country. Getting there will take forever." He mentioned.

"No it won't. I can simply fly us there." I reminded him. "As long as I keep the Spirit's Sword in my scabbard I still have access to my usual powers."

"Oh! Right… I forgot…" Link said.

I giggled lightly at his reaction. Link always seemed to forget about my ability to fly, even though he has seen me do it hundreds of times. I found that rather cute. After a moment, Link agreed to go on this quest with me. I was delighted with his decision, and I quickly grabbed my sword and placed it over my back once again.

"Well, what is it that we are waiting for? C'mon Link, grab your sword and let's go!" I told him excitedly.

It was not often that I got to go on adventures like this. Most of the action that I partook in happened within Jump City, so for the chance to go on a journey to a mysterious location with Link, there was no chance that I would pass that up. Once Link was ready, I told him to grab my hand. He was a little nervous at first, but after a moment, he placed his hand within mine and I took off with him holding on. It was not the first time he had done this, but he probably was still not used to it yet. Regardless, I could not wait to see this 'Phantom Island' that Lanayru spoke of, and what would await us there!


	5. Chapter 5: Linebeck Returns

Chapter Five: Linebeck Returns

(Link's Narration)

It was about three days before Starfire and I reached Steel City. We did not want to risk flying at night, so whenever the sun set we'd set up camp and wait until the next morning before continuing on. When we did arrive at Steel City, the sight of it left me rather perplexed. It was huge, cold, and full of many metal factories. Not only that but a scent of death hung in the air. I told Starfire that I did not like this place, but she informed me that everything would be alright. The truth was, she and the others had friends here; the Titans East. I had not realized that there were Teen Titans in other locations of the world. That just goes to show; you learn something new everyday.

"Yes. A small group of our friends built a tower here to keep an eye on this place." Starfire told me.

"Really? Which one is it?" I asked her as I looked around for a tower.

"Oh, it is not within the city. Titans East Tower is located on the city's edge." She answered.

I was not sure at first what she had meant by that, but once she took me there I understood exactly. The entire tower was hidden beneath a tall cliff near the coast, almost perfectly concealed from the whole city. Starfire was about to knock on the front door, but I suggested that perhaps she should call them on her communicator first.

"No, I cannot. I deactivated my communicator shortly after I left the tower." She told me.

"What?! Why?" I asked her.

"Because I did not want Robin to constantly call me asking me to come back." Starfire said with a slight scowl on her face.

Wow. Robin must have really ticked her off if she'd go as far as to deactivate her communicator. She went back to knock on the door; it was answered by a dark-skinned girl wearing an outfit that made her look like a bee. She even had insect-like wings! Starfire told me that her name was Bumblebee. Gee, how original. Sarcasm aside, she introduced me to her.

"Link huh? Nice to meet'cha." she said. "What are you doing here, Star? Where's the rest of your team?"

"They are… preoccupied at the moment. So for now I am traveling with Link." Starfire informed her. "We came here hoping you could help us."

"Okay, well c'mon in! The rest of the team should meet your friend Lank." She told us as she invited us inside.

"Uhh… it's _Link_. Not Lank." I corrected her.

* * *

The inside of the tower was about as nice as Titans West Tower, except the ops room was divided into two floors, with the bottom floor having two large pools of water. It was necessary because one of their team members was aquatic. Their team consisted of Bumblebee, their leader; Aqualad, a fit looking guy in a blue outfit who was actually an atlantean; Speedy, an archer who kind of resembled Robin, although his hairstyle was different; and Mas and Menos, a couple of short twin brothers who could run really fast while they were touching, and they only spoke spanish, which confused me at first until Starfire filled me in. They all introduced themselves to me, although when each of them shook my hand, they each got an untrusting look on their faces. This had not gone unnoticed by Starfire.

"Friends, is something wrong?" She asked them.

"Yeah, we'd just like to know… how do you know this guy? We've never seen him on your team before." Speedy replied.

Starfire went on to explain that Link had been present when she first came to this planet, and that he had assisted her in her escape from the Gordanian fleet; the aliens that had abducted her from her home planet. She told them that I had not been present before because I had to go on a three year journey and was unable to contact anyone. We couldn't be sure if they all believed the story. What did they think; that I kidnapped her or something?

"You do not have any reason to mistrust Link. He is a good person, he is just a little… strange." She insisted.

"He looks alright, it's just that when I look at him I get this feeling in my gut that I shouldn't be near him." Aqualad said, with the others nodding afterwards.

"Yeah… I get that a lot…" I said.

"Link has a… condition. People often avoid him because of it. But I swear he is a good person! He even helped us get rid of Slade!" Starfire explained to them.

All five of them were shocked at that statement. The fact that Slade had been done in was news enough, but when Starfire told them the whole story, that he had become a dark lord named Ganondorf, they were blown away. All of them each once again shook my hand; this time with no looks of mistrust.

"Any guy who could take down someone like that is okay in my book, weird feeling or not." Speedy told me.

I smiled, grateful that I had apparently made five new friends. Bumblebee decided that we should get back to the matter at hand, and asked Starfire how they could help us. Starfire was wondering if she and I could borrow their T-Ship; apparently the Titans East had their own variant of the T-Ship, and Starfire was thinking that we could use it to get to our next destination.

"Sorry y'all, but the ship is going through repairs right now. It'll be a while before she's up and running again." Bumblebee told us.

We were both disappointed by this. Now how were we going to find the Phantom Island. When I had mentioned the Phantom Island, Aqualad immediately reacted.

"Did you say Phantom Island? Why in the world would you want to go _there?!_" He asked us.

"You know of it!" Starfire and I both inquired.

"Yeah. It's surrounded by a dense fog that people can hardly see through. I once got caught up in it a long time ago, and barely managed to get out. " He said.

"But if no one can get through the fog, how is there knowledge of an island within it?" Starfire asked.

"Because there's a rumor that one man managed to get through it. But his whereabouts these days are unknown." Aqualad answered.

He suggested that if we needed a way across the atlantic that we may be able to find help at the local shipyard. He told us that it was not too far from here, just a little ways north of here. We were about to leave, but everyone insisted that we at least stay for lunch. They had just ordered a pizza. How could we refuse?

After lunch, Starfire and I bid farewell to everyone at Titans East Tower and thanked them for being so generous.

"No problem. By the way Star, that's a nice flower you have there." Bumblebee shouted as we were leaving.

She had no doubt noticed the flower that Starfire was wearing in her hair. It was a LightFlower, a plant native to Tamaran that I had given to Starfire while we were there; it was just as red and shiny as when I had picked it for her. For some strange reason, the flower had not wilted, even though I picked it for her nearly two months ago. It certainly was beautiful; almost as beautiful as she was.

* * *

After traveling north for about twenty minutes, we reached Steel City's shipyard, which consisted of a series of piers with several boats docked at them. There were also three medium sized buildings positioned at right in front of the docks, and hopefully we would be able to find someone that could help us there. I couldn't help but notice that one of the boats docked at the pier looked rather familiar, but i assumed that it was just a coincidence. Starfire and I decided to check out the building in the center to see if there was anyone who was willing to rent us a boat. The inside of the building was full of shelves stocked with unusual objects, which reminded me of the place that I had visited in Tokyo almost a year ago that was run by a man named Linebeck, who had also offered me a ride on his boat back to america. But this couldn't be the same place… could it?

"Hello?" Starfire asked, hoping that someone would hear. "Can anyone here help us?"

Once we got to the front counter, we heard someone from the back room call out. He said that he'd be right there. The voice sounded familiar to me, and once the man came out to the counter I immediately recognized him. He looked middle-aged with long brown hair, and was wearing a blue overcoat.

"Well well. If it isn't the kid in the green outfit." He said.

"Linebeck?! What are _you_ doing here?" I asked him.

"I sailed here not too long ago and set up shop. Although, there aren't a whole lot of people here that seem interested in my goods." He told me. "Anyway, good to see ya again lad! And I see that'cha brought a friend."

He pointed towards Starfire, and she gave a small bow and said it was a pleasure to meet the man who had helped me return home so long ago. He said that it was no trouble, but I reminded him that my trip hadn't exactly been free. He laughed at the concept, and Starfire and I giggled a bit too. She then asked Linebeck if she could have a look around his store. He said he didn't mind so long as she didn't break anything, with Starfire saying that she would be careful. As she began to look around the store, Linebeck leaned towards me and whistled.

"Quite the catch you have there." He told me smugly.

It did not understand at first, but I quickly realized that he was talking about Starfire.

"No no no, it's not like that!" I told him hastily. "Starfire and I are friends. _Just_ friends. _Really good_ friends, but just friends!"

"Heh heh. If you say so kid." He said, still with a smug look.

As Starfire kept looking around the store, I explained to Linebeck what had happened so far, and asked if I could once again use his ship. He turned around to tend to some things around the counter, but was still listening and asked why we needed his ship.

"We need it to reach a place called the Phantom Island." I told him.

At the mention of that name, Linebeck immediately froze, then turned around to face me. He had a serious look on his face; something I had never seen from him before.

"Why would you want to travel to that forsaken place." Linebeck asked me.

"Lanayru told us to go there. He said there was something on the island that he wanted us to see." I told him.

"Kid, the only thing that you'll see on that island is the path to your own demise." He replied. "I don't know what this Lanayru is thinking, but he'd be crazy to send you to that island!"

"Lanayru wouldn't send us there if it was not for a good reason." I replied back. "Wait a minute… how do _you_ know about the Phantom Island?"

Linebeck turned back around and walked several steps. Then he looked to the ground and sighed.

"Because… I've been to that island before…" He told me.

He'd been there?! Did that mean that he was the only person to have set foot on that island, like aqualad had said before? My suspicions were confirmed, as Linebeck told me that he had traveled there in his search for treasure, but all he had found was a dead land, with no living thing in sight. I asked him that if that was so, why was the place so dangerous.

"Legends say that somewhere on the island, lives… a monster. Something so horrifying, that even the bravest of men had been petrified just by looking at it. I never saw it myself, but I did hear… voices." He answered.

That story sounded horrifying. A monster that could hurt people just by them looking at it?! It sounded scary, but then I remembered that we had faced scarier things. I myself had fought monsters on my three year journey, and not too long ago my friends and I had defeated the Demon King, Ganon. I told Linebeck that Starfire and I were willing to take the risk. He still didn't seem convinced though. I asked him if there was any way he would reconsider. As it would turn out, his request was actually rather simple.

"I might be willing to help ya… if ya help me by purchasing something in my store." He said.

"But… I don't have any money." I told him.

"Then that's too bad. Business here has been terrible, so only way I'll even consider journeying back to that horrid place is if you buy something." Linebeck responded.

I was at a loss for what to do. His request may have been simple, but that didn't necessarily mean that it was easy. I went to find Starfire so I could tell her what Linebeck had told me. When I had found her, she was gazing at a small blue stone that looked almost like a diamond. I told her the bad news and suggested that maybe she could fly us there.

"Link, it would be far too dangerous to fly across the ocean while carrying you." She told me. "But if buying something from this store will help, I suppose I could purchase an artifact. Perhaps this shiny blue stone."

By a stroke of luck, Starfire had brought some money with her, and it looked like enough to purchase something here; something small at least. She picked up the blue stone and took it to the counter, telling Linebeck that she wished to purchase it. But she also mentioned that if she purchased it, that Linebeck would uphold his part of the bargain and take us to the Phantom Island. Albeit begrudgingly, Linebeck agreed. After Starfire had purchased the stone, Linebeck told us to meet him at the docks in a few minutes.

I was curious about the stone that Starfire had purchased. It was not only blue, but it had very faint markings on it. Not only that but both Starfire and I could sense something strange about it. Regardless, she put it in a small bag and went with me out to the docks. Linebeck was standing next to his ship, the S.S. Linebeck, and told us that she was all warmed up and ready for travel. Starfire and I boarded the ship, and after a few minutes the ship set off into the Atlantic. Starfire stood at the helm of the ship and let the ocean wind blow past her. She was no doubt enjoying herself, and she looked positively beautiful in the wind.

Our trip took about two days, and Linebeck did not make our stay an easy one, often having us do chores for him. It was a pain, but considering that Linebeck really did not want to sail to this island, it was the least we could do. One evening at sea, Starfire was sitting on the deck of the boat, staring up at the night sky. I had not been able to sleep either, and was a bit surprised to see her on the deck. I got her attention and asked if I could join her. She happily agreed, and I sat down next to her.

"The night sky certainly is beautiful out here, is it not?" She asked me.

"Yeah… it is…" I answered.

I had not been looking at the night sky however. I was still looking at her. Starfire still looked as lovely as ever, and her hair was still blowing in the wind. I knew though that while she was incredibly beautiful, it was her wonderful personality and kind heart that really made me love her so much. I just wish that she would love me in the same way.

* * *

The next morning, Linebeck's boat had sailed into an area of dense fog. As we continued onward, the fog only seemed to get worse. We had no doubt entered the area where the Phantom Island was supposed to be. Linebeck had confirmed our suspicions and asked us how we were going to find the island.

"What?! I thought that _you_ knew!" I exclaimed.

"I never said I knew how to get through the fog! I happened upon the island by chance!" He told us.

"Well why did you not tell us this before?!" Starfire inquired.

"You never asked." He answered.

We were at a loss for what to do, but when it seemed like there was no hope, my spirit gem began to glow brightly. The glow seemed to dispel the fog that was within a ten foot radius from the boat. This was good! Now we had a better chance of finding the island. After sailing for about fifteen minutes, we had finally come to the shore of the island that we had heard so many horrifying rumors about; The Phantom Island. Starfire and I got off of the ship and onto the shore, and the moment that I set foot on the ground, I felt something strange in the air; a feeling of despair that sent a shiver down my spine. Apparently Starfire could feel it too, for she was shivering slightly. It was still foggy, but we were able to see several yards ahead. But all we saw at the moment was barren wasteland all around us.

We asked Linebeck if he was coming, but he had decided to stay in his boat, claiming that he wasn't setting a single toe on this island again. Neither I nor Starfire knew exactly what Linebeck had been through when he was here before, but we couldn't let that bother us too much. Right now we had to find the thing that Lanayru wanted us to see, whatever it was. I'm sure we would know when had found it. Still, I hoped that we would find it soon; the less time we were on this creepy island, the better.


	6. Chapter 6: The Demon's Box

Chapter Six: The Demon's Box

Starfire and I began our journey across the Phantom Island, and at first it was not at all pleasant. So many things about this place just didn't seem right. It was located in the middle of the ocean, and yet there did not seem to be any wind blowing at all! It was so quiet, that you could almost hear the blood within your own veins. The fog surrounding the island was so thick, that the only thing we could see ahead of us was white nothingness. We _were _able to see about ten feet ahead of us, only because of my spirit gems light, but all that we saw was barren wasteland. There did not seem to be any life around us, not even within the soil, which was hard, dry, and dusty.

"Link… This place feels… most disturbing." Starfire said to me.

"I know. Whatever Lanayru wants us to see here, I hope it's worth it." I responded.

We kept on walking what seems like hours. The landscape had changed a little, with the sight of a few trees. However, upon closer examination, these trees were not alive. In fact, they were petrified; turned to stone! Linebeck had mentioned that a monster lives on this island. Whatever this monster was, was it responsible for all of this lifelessness? A little farther, Starfire and I stumbled upon some kind of unusual pattern on the ground. We observed it closer and discovered it to be some kind of ancient metal pathway; although the metal was rusted and broke with the slightest touch.

"Link, what do you suppose that this could be?" Starfire asked me.

"I'm not sure. But they look kind of like a section of train tracks." I answered.

"Train tracks? You mean the kind that those train vehicles travel upon, yes?" She inquired. "Perhaps this means that this island is not completely abandoned."

"Maybe. But these tracks look really old. I don't think they are anything recent." I stated. "Still, why don't we follow them? If we do, we might find what we're looking for."

Starfire agreed with me, and the two of us began walking alongside the tracks. For a while we still saw nothing but wasteland, but a little while later, Starfire claimed that she saw the silhouette of something in the distance. I looked in the same direction as her, and I could definitely see a faint outline of something in front of the tracks. Starfire ran ahead to see what it was, and ran after her insisting that she not be so hasty. After all, we still didn't know exactly what we had seen. When I caught up to her both of us gasped in awe at what was in front of us. Placed upon the tracks before us was an old run-down train about twice the size of Cyborg's T-car. It looked ancient; several of it's wheels were missing, the exhaust port on top was broken, and the whole thing was almost cleaved in half. Despite all of the wreckage though, it was still a sight to behold.

Starfire walked up right in front of it and gasped once again. She had noticed the marking on the front of the train looked almost exactly like symbol that was on my shield, and also the same kind of symbol that we had seen on Tamaran. I was as surprised as she was. Did this mean that the Phantom Island had some sort of connection to Tamaran? But how could that be?

"It is quite unfortunate that this train is in disrepair, otherwise we could use it to explore the island much faster than we could on foot." Starfire said.

"Starfire, this train looks like it had been in this condition for ages. Even if we _could _put it back together, I don't think it would be in good enough shape to do _anything_." I told her.

Regardless, she went and climbed aboard the wrecked machine. I followed after her, and the two of us were standing in front of the main controls; or at least what was left of them. One thing that stood out was a small indent near the center of the controls. I wondered what it could be. Starfire apparently was wondering this too. However, she had an action to back up her curiosity. She reached into a small bag clipped to her belt and pulled out a small blue stone; the same stone that she had purchased from Linebeck a few days ago. She looked at the indent, then back at the stone.

"That indent is almost the exact same shape as this stone." She stated. "I wonder if…"

She inched a little closer and placed the stone within the indent. It was a perfect fit. For the first few seconds, nothing happened. I was about to tell her that it was a nice try and that we should keep moving, but then all of the sudden the tiny blue stone lit up. A transparent glowing sphere appeared around the stone, and began expanding around us and the train until the sphere's radius was about ten feet around the train. The wrecked train began to glow, and parts of it silhouetted in the glow started shifting. When the glow was gone, the train was no longer a wreck, it was fully functional again! Not only that, but the area within the sphere had changed too. What was once hard dry ground was now covered in grass , and the section of tracks that the train was on looked brand new!

"Whoa! Starfire, what did you do?!" I asked.

"I do not know. I thought that I should put my stone in the indent. But I had no idea it would do this!" She answered. "It is as if we have gone back in time!"

I noticed however that not everything had changed. The landscape beyond the sphere still looked the same as when we had arrived here.

"Whatever that stone is, I think it has the power to manipulate time. In the areas where it's light projects anyway." I said.

"Well... whatever just happened, we now have a faster way to travel!" She told me excitedly. "Do you have any idea how to work something like this, Link?"

"I've only ever _ridden_ on a train. I've never worked one before. But I can try." I replied.

I stepped up to the controls, which consisted of a large lever, several switches, and a rope hanging from the top. I first tried tugging on the rope, and when I did a loud whistle came from the train's exhaust port. The sound startled both of us, although at least I knew what the rope was for now. I pulled the lever forward next, and the train shook a little. Its wheels started moving, and the vehicle slowly started moving forward upon the tracks. Starfire and I both saw that as the train moved forward, so did the sphere around it, and upon the ground we were able to see flowers from the past landscape pop up out of nowhere. Starfire giggled and I smiled. This would certainly make our time on this bleak island a lot more enjoyable!

* * *

The train chugged along at a decent speed, with a strange golden light trailing behind it. The tracks led us to an area off the coast of the island where the tracks were raised above the water. Even though the area beyond the sphere was still foggy, we were able to see pure, clean water within the sphere; as opposed to the murky water beyond it. Suddenly to our delight, a trio of gold colored dolphins jumped out of the water. Starfire squealed in delight from the sight, and I giggled from her happiness; even though I knew that the moment those dolphins went beyond the sphere, they would disappear. The train continued onward until it traveled around a seaside cliff and through a giant blue gate. The train suddenly stopped in front of a huge pile of rubble. We dismounted it and upon closer examination, the pile of rubble was actually ruins of some sort. Judging by how the sections of rubble were lain about, I assumed that this area had been a tower in the past.

"I wonder if this place was like our tower when it stood so long ago." Starfire pondered.

"I don't know. But we should go look around. What we're looking for might be within those ruins." I said.

Starfire and I walked into the ruins, once again back in the disturbing surroundings of the Phantom Island. Eventually we happened upon a circular area with a large hollow in the ground and what looked like ancient drawings upon the walls. Starfire and I took a look at the drawings, and many things about them seemed familiar. Starfire took notice of the drawing of a horned monster with tentacles coming from it; that looked a lot like a drawing that we had seen on Tamaran! However, all of the sudden, I felt a strange presence in the area. It felt like it was coming from the hollow in the center of the area. Starfire was still looking at the ancient drawings as I walked over to the hollow. It looked as if it had been covered by another section of floor in the past. It was about five feet deep; I jumped down into it and saw something out of place. It was a medium sized black box that had an unusual heart-shaped mark on it. The mark looked a lot like the thing that I had seen in my dream.

"I shouldn't open it…" I thought to myself.

I was about to walk away, when all of the sudden, I heard a voice. A sinister voice. One that I had heard before… many times.

_"Open the box… Accept your fate…"_ It said.

I felt like I was being forced to open it, like some unseen being was compelling me. I was struggling within my mind to ignore it.

_"STOP RESISTING! LET ME OUT!"_ The voice yelled within my head.

It was at this point that Starfire had noticed that I had walked away. She was about to tell me how the drawing looked like one we had seen in the Palace of Tamaran when she noticed that I was within the hollow. She began to head in that direction, and saw me about to open the black box in front of me.

"Linebeck said that a monster was supposed to live here… and that drawing is the same kind as on Tamaran… then that would mean…" Starfire pondered as she observed me a few feet away.

She had also seen within the drawing a black box that had been beneath the monster. That black box could be the same one that I was being compelled to open! She realized this in an instant and ran towards me.

"Link! Get away from that box!" She shouted as she ran towards me.

When she had gotten there though, it was too late. I had opened the box and removed what was within. Whatever had been compelling me to open it had vanished and I returned to my senses. Within my hands was a purple and red heart-shaped mask lined with spikes. It was covered in strange markings, but the most notable thing about it was the two eyes in the center that were open disturbingly wide, as if it was looking into my soul; just like the thing from my nightmare! Fortunately, this was just a mask, not the actual monster. Starfire saw this too, and sighed in relief.

"Thank X'hal. It is not the monster, it is merely a mask in it's likeness." She said.

"Yeah. Still… it's really creepy. And why was it in that box?" I inquired.

All of the sudden, Starfire and I heard a loud crack come from underneath of us. We looked down, and saw cracks forming right below our feet. The ground we were standing must've been really thin, and both of us standing here was too much for it; it was going to collapse! I urged Starfire to fly us out of here. She nodded in agreement, but something was wrong. A few seconds passed, and Starfire suddenly looked shocked. I asked her what was taking so long, and she claimed that she could not fly!

"What?! Why not?!" I asked out loud.

Turns out, that was the wrong thing to do, because right after I shouted the ground beneath us collapsed, and we both fell down a deep underground shaft. I did not know why Starfire couldn't fly, but I couldn't wonder that now; I had to think of a way to cushion our fall. I resolved this by getting my shield out and placing it under my feet. I angled myself to the side and grabbed Starfire's hand. While on top of my shield she huddled up again me. This made me blush, but so long as we landed safely, then it was alright; to be honest though, it was alright regardless. We reached the bottom of the shaft with a loud clang, which caused us to lose our balance and fall down. I was on my back upon the ground, and to my embarrassment, Starfire had fallen directly on top of me. Both of us blushed while in this position and we immediately stood back up and dusted ourselves off. Starfire asked if I was alright; and likewise, I asked if she was alright. We were both fine, but we were now stuck down a shaft that was at least a mile deep with no apparent way out! That mask had also fallen down with us, but it was _just_ a mask… or _was_ it?


	7. Chapter 7: The Monster Awakens

Chapter Seven: The Monster Awakens

Within an underground shaft deep below the Phantom Island, Starfire and I sat down upon some rocks contemplating on how we could get back to the surface. From our position at the bottom the shaft was at least a mile high, and my hookshot was unable to latch onto solid rock, so climbing out did not seem like an option. Ordinarily a situation such as this wouldn't be a problem, as Starfire could simply fly us out. But for some strange reason, Starfire's ability to fly wasn't working right now; but why?

"Starfire, what happened? Why weren't you able to fly earlier?" I asked her.

Starfire was looking down at her hands, which were placed upon her lap in a somewhat timid manner. I hoped that my question hadn't made her feel bad.

"I… do not know." She answered. "I am usually able to fly quite well in dangerous situations such as before. But this time, for some reason… I could not."

"How does it even work? Your flying, I mean." I asked her.

"Well, Tamaranian powers are inclined by our emotions." She answered.

"By your emotions?" I questioned. "So the way you're feeling affects your powers?"

She nodded in response. She explained that the only other time that she had ever been unable to fly in a situation such as this was when she had felt unfamiliar confusion. I asked her if anything about our journey had been confusing for her. She shook her head, saying that she had greatly enjoyed being on this journey with me.

"The last time you felt confused… it involved Robin didn't it." I asked.

Starfire turned her head away from me, sporting a somewhat guilty look on her face. That must've meant that it had involved Robin, and she was worried that I might get upset about it. I insisted that it was alright if it was true, and that if so that it was all in the past.

"Starfire, maybe you should reactivate your communicator and contact the others for help." I suggested.

"If I did that then I would have to speak with Robin… and I know that he will have not gotten over the argument from before." She replied in a sour tone.

"Star, you can't stay mad at him forever." I told her.

"So long as he calls you a 'monster', I will be upset with him as long as I please!" She responded.

That was the only reason that she was mad at him? Because he was mean to _me?_ I wondered if there was some other reason behind this as well. I asked her.

"Well… I guess there is one other reason." She confessed. "Even when I was still Robin's…umm… girlfriend, he did not really pay that much attention to me. The only times that we ever spent time together was right after our missions, or simply short conversations within the tower. And even then I could always tell that Robin was barely paying attention. I had always assumed that there was a kind person underneath his gruff exterior… a person like you. And while you were away, I had hoped that I could bring that person out of him. But I guess I was wrong…"

"No Starfire, you're right. He's definitely a good person. He's just… umm…" I began to say.

"A jerk." She interrupted.

"Uhh… that's not what I was going to say…" I said, even though part of me agreed with her. "Robin is just… closed-off. He just doesn't seem to completely trust everyone."

"I know that. I had just hoped that he might open up to someone like _me_. But truthfully, other than a… few instances, it never really worked very well…" She told me.

She once again looked down at her hands, as if pondering something. I looked the other way, also pondering something; pondering a question that I wanted to ask her, although I was not sure if this was the right time. I was about to ask her, but she apparently wished to ask her question first.

"Link? There is something I wish to tell you… something I have not told anyone else on Earth…" She said while twittling her fingers.

Something she had never told anyone else? Not even to Robin? I wondered what it could be.

"Starfire… is not my real name. Well,_ technically_ it is in your language, but on Tamaran I am known by the name… Koriand'r." She told me.

"_Koriand'r?_ That's not the easiest name to say…" I said. "But then again, _Link_ isn't really a common name either."

"If it is not too much trouble, I would like you to refer to me by that name whenever it is just the two of us together." She insisted.

It was no problem, but I asked her why. Her answer was that she wanted me to have a way to identify her that was different from how everyone else did, and that that way it would feel special for both of us. I found that heartwarming, but I mentioned that Koriand'r was still a bit hard to say every time. I suggested that perhaps I could say it in a shorter form; Kori for instance. She liked the sound of that, and asked if I could call her that from now on; when we were alone at least. I happily agreed.

"Starfi-…err... I mean, _Kori_. Can I ask _you_ something now?" I asked her.

"Of course Link. You may ask me anything." She replied. "What is it you wish to know?"

"Umm… it's about what happened on the roof of Titans Tower six months ago… what happened between you and… huh… _him_. I just want to know… what does that feel like?" I asked her a little timidly.

"Do you mean the… lip contact? Link, you already know what that is like. The day that we met… do you not remember?" She responded.

She was speaking of when she kissed me on the day that we met. Tamaranians have the ability to learn any language through lip contact; in other words, through kissing other beings. But she had only done so back then so that she could learn english, and other than that it had meant nothing. I mentioned that to her, and asked again that I wanted to know how it felt when it _did_ mean something, when there was feeling behind it, like when she had kissed… _him_.

"I just want to know because… I'll never experience myself…" I said.

"What?! Link that is not true! You will experience it one day." She insisted.

I was not sure if I agreed with her. After all, there was only one girl that I ever wanted to kiss, and she was sitting right next to me. But I knew that the chances of that ever happening again were very low. She reminded me that she had broken up with Robin, most likely as a way to make me feel better. But I mentioned that she only did so to save everyone from me when I had turned evil. She insisted that that was not the only reason; that it was also because she cared about me greatly. Back to the matter of my question, she said that the 'feeling' behind such a gesture is too difficult to describe in words, and that one had to experience it personally to truly know how it feels.

"Well… it's not like you could show me…" I said. "Umm… thanks anyway."

Starfire… err... I mean, Kori, took a moment to think about what I had asked her, and then smiled in a very cute manner.

"Actually Link, there is not anything at the moment that is saying that I could _not_ show you…" She said.

When I heard that my eyes widened. She saw my expression and giggled. Was she really thinking about kissing me?! For real?! I asked if she was serious, and she nodded.

"St-… err… Kori, even if I actually believed that you would really do it, well… I'm… a little frightened from the thought…" I told her.

"Link, there is no need to be afraid." She said with a small giggle afterwards. "Why not simply close your eyes? That way it may be less frightening for you."

I felt a bit reluctant at first, even though in reality, this was something that I _really_ wanted. As such it only took a few seconds for me to give in, and I closed my eyes. I was not able to see, but I was still able to feel Kori's face inch closer to mine. My heart was beating at an uncontrollable rate as I felt her breath right in front of my own.

All of the sudden however, a sinister laugh echoed throughout the shaft, and interrupted our moment. In an instant, Kori and I sat up in shock at what we had heard.

"_Well well well, isn't this cute… if I had a stomach I would vomit!_" The sinister voice said. "_Heh heh heh… the look on your faces… priceless…_"

The voice sounded as if it was echoing throughout not just the shaft, but across the entire island. It was as if all of the Phantom Island was speaking. But that couldn't be, could it?

"Link, what is going on?!" Starfire asked in fear.

"I'm not sure. But whatever it is, we are definitely not alone down here." I stated.

_"Of course you aren't! You fools are the ones who brought me down here!"_ The voice bellowed.

We had brought this… whatever it was down here with us?! I then realized something; I've heard this voice before, right before I picked up that mask. That was the only other thing that fell down with us. As I realized this out loud, all of the sudden a shady object appeared hovering right behind us. It was the mask, and some kind of dark aura was billowing out from behind it. As it came into view, be both saw the horrific sight. The mask's eyes, once still and inanimate, were now able to move, and disturbingly at that.

"What is happening?! The mask is…_ alive?!" _Kori gasped. "How is this possible?!"

"I don't know. But we can handle it. It's just a mask." I told her.

The mask, or monster, or… whatever it was, rotated its head from side to side as if adjusting a nonexistent neck. It stared at us with it's eyes parted evilly, which sent a shiver down my spine, and I'm certain Kori felt it too.

_"I assure you children… I am more than just a mere mask… _**_much_**_ more…"_ The mask monster claimed.

I could see now why this thing had been encased within that box. It was not simply a mask in the likeness of that monster from the drawings, it _was_ that monster! I drew the Master Sword in preparation for whatever this monster might do, but when I tried to go into spirit mode, for some strange reason nothing happened! First St-… I mean, Kori was unable to fly, and now I couldn't use my spirit powers?! What was going on here?!

"Whatever kind of vile creature you are, we are not allowing you to leave this island!" Kori warned the monster.

She then drew the Spirit's Sword from its scabbard upon her back, which shimmered in the darkness of the shaft. The glow of the sword caught the attention of the monster, whose eyes widened, as if in shock from seeing the sword. The dark aura coming from the monster began to flame fiercely in rage.

_"WHERE DID YOU GET THAT SWORD?!"_ It shrieked in anger. _"HOW IS IT THAT _**_YOU_**_ WIELD IT?! THAT ACCURSED BLADE VANISHED FROM THIS WORLD AGES AGO!"_

Kori and I both had puzzled looks on our faces. How did this monster know about Star-… Kori's sword?

"If you are speaking of the Spirit's Sword, Link and I retrieved it from my homeplanet Tamaran." Kori informed the monster. "But how is it that _you_ know of this sword?"

The monster paused for a moment, now with a puzzled look on _its _face; as much of a face as it had anyway. Then a second later it once again gazed at us with its eyes parted evilly, looking as if it had just realized something.

_"Oh never mind that now. I am free once again!" _It told us._ "I must be going now, but I assure you… we _**_will_**_ meet again." _

With that the dark aura enveloped the mask. Before any of us could do anything to stop it, the monster zoomed past us, straight into the cave wall. The wall was blown apart, revealing a tunnel of some sort. The mask had apparently flown through, as there was no sign of it when the dust cleared. The good news though was that now we had a way out of here. Whether the monster had done this intentionally or not was unknown, but regardless, Kori and I put our swords back in our scabbards and proceeded through the tunnel.

* * *

As we were walking, I mentioned to Kori that when we confronted the monster, I had not been able to use my spirit mode powers. The whole thing was confusing, but Kori suggested that there may be something about this island that was affecting our powers. We couldn't be certain, but seeing as we couldn't find any other reason, we decided that was the case for now. After traveling for about an hour, we were finally able to see the end of the tunnel. We got out alright, although we were still upon the desolate Phantom Island. The area though was one that we had not seen yet; we were at the base of some kind of mountain, and there were several statues around us. They were old and worn down, but still relatively big. Two of them were facing each other, and the other, which appeared feminine, was in front of them as if staring at both of them. Kori noticed something upon the rocky wall ahead of us. We walked over to it, and saw that it was writing of some sort. In fact, it looked almost exactly like the writing in the book that Raven had given me a while back; ancient hylian writing. This concluded what Kori and I had been thinking; the Phantom Island was actually what remained of the land of Hyrule, the ancestral home of both me and Kori! And that monster from before; was that the thing responsible for all of this?

"Let me see if I can read this…" Kori told me as she looked closer at the ancient writing.

After a moment, she discovered that the writing was a story of some sort, that went like this:

_Once upon a time, two men fell in love with a beautiful woman. One man was popular, and always the center of attention. But all he cared about was the woman he loved. However, the woman only had eyes for the other man. This man was lonesome and shunned by others, all except for the woman who loved him. There came a time when the two men got into an argument for the woman's love, and the intensity of their rage became so powerful that it could've melted stone. However, when danger threatened, the two men eventually settled their differences, and the light of friendship shone between them. As if a door had been opened. _

"Link… does this story not sound… resembling?" Kori asked me. "It sounds a lot like the three of us and what we are going through right now: you, me, and Robin."

"It's just a coincidence Sta-… err… Kori. This story was obviously written hundreds of years ago." I told her.

"Yes I know. But it is very similar to the ordeal at hand; similar to the argument between you and Robin." She claimed.

It was then that we both realized that this was most likely what Lanayru had wanted us to see. This story of love and hate; that ultimately ended with the bonds of friendship. Perhaps this meant that I should just forgive Robin for the mean things he said to me and just return to Jump City. As I looked into her eyes, I could tell that Kori was thinking the same thing. We both decided that the best thing to do right now was to go home. We turned around and headed south, leaving the statues and the writing behind.

* * *

It was about three hours later before we returned to the shore of the Phantom Island, and Linebeck's ship was still waiting there. We climbed aboard and entered the cabin to find Linebeck sound asleep. I called out his name a few times and he sprang awake with a small blade in his hand.

"Oh, it's just you two! For the love of the sea, don't sneak up on me like that!" He told us while yawning.

"Sorry about that." I said while scratching the back of my head. "But we're ready to leave this place. We found what Lanayru wanted us to see."

"Really? And what exactly was that?" Linebeck asked us with one of his eyebrows raised.

"A story about friendship written upon a wall. It has convinced us to return home." Kori said with a smile.

"A story? A _STORY?!_ You mean to tell me that I sailed to this god-forsaken place just so the two of you could read a _story?!_" Linebeck raged.

He kept rambling on for a while about how this was a waste of time, and energy, and that Lanayru could've just told us the story from the beginning. If he had done that though, we wouldn't have really learned anything from it. Linebeck shrugged and claimed that he was glad that we could at least leave this horrid place. He started up his boat, and we 'shoved off' as he put it.

"By the way kid… did you happen to see anything else on the island… anything _strange?_" Linebeck asked me while steering the ship.

"Umm… Why do you ask?" I asked him back.

"Cause while you were on the island, I saw this odd flaming thing shoot across the sky overhead. It looked as if it was heading to the mainland." He answered.

An odd flaming thing? I think both Kori and I knew what it was; the monster that I unintentionally freed from the black box in the ruins! What Linebeck saw was without a doubt that monster; and it had escaped from the island! He said that it was heading for the mainland, which was no doubt meant America. Where in America was it heading, and what did it plan to do when it got there?

* * *

**Majora's Mask is now on the loose! As I said before, Majora becomes a main antagonist throughout the rest of my fanfiction, but some of you may be wondering what the mask was doing in the ruins of the Tower of Spirits? And on the adult timeline at that? For why it is imprisoned at the Tower of Spirits, it involves an origin story that takes place 1000 years before the events in this fanfiction (which I have yet to write, but I will). As for the timeline placement, yes Majora's Mask was first and so far only seen on the child timeline, but that does not mean it cannot appear on other timelines. Practically everything about Majora is still a mystery, so I thought he'd be a great villain to use in this story. **

**The remaining chapters will mainly focus back on Ian, the Four Sword, and Vaati.**


	8. Chapter 8: The Wind Mage

Chapter Eight: The Wind Mage

When Starfire, or rather, Kori and I returned to America, the first place we decided to visit before returning to Titans Tower was Lanayru's Spring. Not only to inform Lanayru that we had seen the story that he wanted us to see, but also simply because Kori wanted to visit; Lanayru's Spring had become one of her favorite places to be. While on the Phantom Island, our powers had been nullified for some strange reason. But fortunately, once back in America, we quickly discovered that our powers had returned! As such, Kori was able to fly us there. The trip took about three days, with breaks inbetween before we arrived at the spring. It looked as tranquil and beautiful as it always was when we visited. Kori sighed in content; visiting the spirit's spring always made her feel at peace.

We approached the spring, and the water and rocks within it began to glow. A glowing sphere rose out of the water, which was followed by a gigantic glowing serpent that wrapped itself around the sphere. This was Lanayru, the light spirit of these lands, and my guardian by my late mother's request.

"Welcome back heroes. I trust that you have seen the story I sent you to find." Lanayru assumed.

"Yes. We saw the story of the two men and the woman." Kori answered. "And it has convinced us to return home and attempt to do 'the making up'."

It was hard to tell, but it appeared that Lanayru was smiling. Did he truly care for our well being, or was this all a part of our destiny?

"It would also seem that you have learned the truth about the Phantom Island… and what it used to be." Lanayru stated.

"Indeed. The Island you had us travel to used to be the land of Hyrule; the home of our ancestors. But why was it in such a horrid condition?" Kori asked the spirit.

"As I have told you before, the land of Hyrule was once home to the hylian people. But one day, a monster appeared and ravaged the land, sending it's people from the land. As you know, those people were your ancestors." Lanayru answered her.

At the mention of the monster, I immediately thought of the mask that Kori and I had found in the ruins, and how it came to life. I had to mention this to Lanayru. I told him everything; about the ruins, the black box, and the mask monster. After I told him all of this, Lanayru was silent for a moment; his serpentine face had a serious look, and I could see a very faint hint of fear in his eyes.

"Link… Koriand'r… what you have uncovered is a matter of grave importance." Lanayru told us. "What has been released… is the monster… known as Majora."

Majora? That's what that thing was called? We were also surprised at first that Lanayru had known that Starfires real name was Koriand'r, but considering that he was a light spirit it was not _that_ surprising. We questioned him further about Majora, and what it exactly was.

"I am unable to tell you the full story, but Majora is a monster contained within a mask that plagued Hyrule in ancient times. I am uncertain of it's motives, but I do know that the being within is very evil, and was known to spread misery to other living beings simply for it's own amusement." Lanayru told us.

"This _Majora_… it's the monster responsible for destroying Hyrule, isn't it?" I asked him.

Lanayru slowly nodded. I was afraid that this would be his answer. And to think that I was the one who unleashed it into the world. The nightmares that I had before; were they trying to warn me of this threat?

"Majora may be a dire threat to this world… but do not let it concern you too much right now. Much of the monster's power was depleted when it was sealed away. It is unlikely for Majora to attack while it is still recovering." Lanayru assured us.

Before Lanayru disappeared back into the spring, he urged us to return to the Titans Tower, so we could settle the disputes between me and Robin, peacefully I hoped. Before we left however, Kori asked if she and I could stay here at the spring for just a little longer. When I agreed, she immediately placed her sword on the ground, then she tagged me, saying that I was 'it', and then darted away from me. She no doubt wanted to play tag, so I dropped my sword and chased after her. I always had fun when Kori and I played tag at Lanayru's Spring; something that I was never invited to do when I was a child, due to my… differences.

* * *

After our fun at the spring, Kori and I flew back to Titans Tower, which took about three hours. We stood at the tower door and Kori was about to open it, but then she noticed that I was standing about five feet behind her, looking a little frightened. She walked up to me and asked if I was alright.

"I… don't know. Kori, what if I'm still not wanted back here. What if Robin forces me to leave…" I told her.

"Link, there is no way that I am going to let Robin force you away, and I am certain that the others will not allow him to either." She told me.

She smiled, put her hand on the side of my face and raised my head so that our eyes met. Just seeing the sparkle in her eyes instantly made me feel better, and she once again went to open the tower doors. She grabbed my hand and led me inside. When we got to the ops room, everyone was really surprised to see us. They were all grateful that we were alright. Cyborg asked why Starfire had deactivated her communicator. When she told them it was so that she did not have to talk to Robin, Beast Boy mentioned that everyone had heard about the argument that she had with him before she left.

"From what we heard, you were really mad Star!" Cyborg stated.

Ian went over to the couch to get Robin. We were wondering what was going on, until Raven filled us in.

"Speaking of that argument, Robin has something to say to Link. _Don't you_, Robin?" Raven said a little sourly.

Ian led Robin up to me. Robin was scratching the back of his head and had a look of reluctance on his face.

"Uhh… yeah. Link about the other day. Ian and Raven talked with me about it and I'd like to say… I'm sorry for the things I called you." Robin told me.

He extended his hand in friendship, expecting me to shake it. After a few seconds, I smiled and shook his hand.

"Okay. 'Water under the bridge', as they say." I told him.

Everyone except Kori looked surprised. They must've not expected me to forgive him that easily.

"You're gonna forgive him just like that?!" Beast Boy blurted. "Dude, he called you a monster!"

"To be fair, we had both kind of acted like monsters before. I'm just glad that we can be friends again." I said.

Kori was overjoyed to see that everyone was getting along again, and she came up between me and Robin and hugged us both. Ian smiled and nudged Raven a little, then she smiled a little too. Did something happen between those two while we were gone? There was no time to ponder that, because right at that moment, the Tower's alarm sounded. A crime was being committed somewhere in the city! Robin checked the Titan mainframe to confirm where our mission was going to take place. To our surprise, the crime was taking place at the museum. When Ian learned of this, his eyes widened in shock, and he raised his hood; partly concealing an angered look on his face. We all knew how important the museum was to Ian, but we were also worried that his powers might go out of control again. Ian insisted that he had his emotions under control, thanks to Raven. He convinced us, and the seven of us left the tower for the museum. It had felt like forever since the last time I was on a mission.

* * *

The first thing that we noticed when we arrived at the museum was that the doors had been torn off of their hinges. Who exactly had broken into the museum? Was it that white monster, or someone else? Regardless, we went inside and decided to first check the display housing the Four Sword. Being Ian's family heirloom it was perhaps the most valuable artifact in here. Fortunately, the sword had not been touched. However, I was able to feel another presence in the room; a familiar presence. And apparently, I wasn't the only one who felt it.

"Alright, we know you're there! Come out and show yourself!" Robin demanded out loud.

Right after his demand, we all heard the wicked laugh of the one who had broken in. Out of nowhere, he appeared about ten feet in front of us, between us and the Four Sword. He was a pale-skinned man wearing a white unitard and a red cape. His white hair covered the left side of his face, and one of his ears was pointed. All of us knew all too well who this was. Ghirahim, a self-proclaimed demon lord, and a former accomplice of Slade.

"You kids have become quite skilled at predicting my whereabouts." He snickered.

"After a while, it becomes obvious." I claimed.

Ian was puzzled, so we filled him in. How Ghirahim was demon lord whom we have crossed paths with numerous times before; whether it be from stalking me around the world, or plotting evil schemes in conjunction with some other villain. Robin demanded that Ghirahim tell us why he was here.

"Why I simply wanted to visit the museum and observe these fascinating artifacts. But alas, it would seem that my money is no good here, so I was forced to enter the _hard_ way." He told us smugly.

"Hard to pay for something when you have nothing to pay with!" Beast Boy said jokingly.

"Enough jokes! Tell us why you're really here!" Robin shouted.

Ghirahim flicked his hair and disappeared all of the sudden, only to reappear right in front of the Four Sword display. He calmly stoked the glass containing the blade and laughed softly.

"If you must know. I'm here for this sword. I have need of it for what I am planning." He said.

"If you think we're just going to stand here and let you take it, then you're crazy!" Cyborg shouted at Ghirahim.

Ghirahim began to laugh evilly for some reason. It was as if he had lost his mind, which knowing him was not at all unlikely. His laughter ceased, and he gazed at us with malicious intent. His sight was focused on Ian more than the rest of us.

"Oh, but_ I'm_ not going to take it." Ghirahim said with a wicked smile. "_He_ is!"

He pointed directly at Ian. Ian was going to take the Four Sword?! What the heck was Ghirahim talking about?! Ian was shocked by Ghirahim's statement, and he quickly turned angry.

"What?! If you think I'm going to steal for a freak like you, you've got another thing…" Ian began to snarl at Ghirahim.

However, when he looked towards the Four Sword display, Ian suddenly went silent. His face went blank, and the lights in the museum began to dim. From within the case, the Four Sword's blade mysteriously turned from white to black, and exuded a dark aura; similar to the dark aura that had exuded from Majora. The aura pierced through the glass and snaked its way around Ian, whose eyes were now blank. Ian was lifted into the air, and an eye shaped mark appeared on his forehead. We knew what was happening; Ian was losing control. Except this time Vaati himself was involved.

_"I told you boy… your efforts were in vain."_ We all heard Vaati say from within the sword, in a demonic voice similar to Majora's. _"I will soon be freed from the Four Sword… but until then… your body is mine to command!" _

At that moment, the dark aura surrounding Ian appeared to enter his body, and his eyes turned dark red. He descended back to ground and turned to face us, with evil look on his face now. Without any warning, Ian shot a stream of purplish energy right at us. Robin, Cyborg, and Beast boy managed to get out of the way, but Raven, Starfire, and I were still distracted from his transformation and were hit by the attack full blast.

"Whoa, man! Ian what's gotten into you?!" Cyborg hastily asked him.

Ian ignored him, and fired another energy wave at Cyborg. He dodged it, and Robin tried throwing several freeze discs at him, hoping to subdue him. However, Ian was unaffected; the dark wind blowing around him simply blew the discs away. Worse, they flew straight at Beast Boy, who tried turning into a hawk to evade them, but wasn't fast enough and froze solid. At this point Raven had come back to her senses. She helped me and Starfire get up and we went to join the others to try and get Ian under control.

"Ian! Snap out of it! Remember your training!" Raven shouted.

She sounded concerned, a bit more than usual, which was kind of odd for Raven. This time Ian did not ignore what he heard, but he was still in his demonic state. The symbol on his forehead glowed even more, and he rose into the air surrounded by dark wind.

_"I'm afraid that _**_Ian _**_cannot hear you right now little girl… his mind belongs to me now. I am Vaati, the great wind mage. My true form may have perished long ago… but with help from my associates… I will soon have a new body… until then, I shall use my '_**_son'_**_ as a vessel…" _Vaati said through Ian.

We all knew that Ian was not really Vaati's son. He had just been affected by his power at birth. As for Vaati's plan to gain a 'new body', how was that going to work? At that moment, Ghirahim stepped forward, laughing softly.

"Good boy Ian." Ghirahim said smugly. "Now subdue the rest of them. Your _father_ and I have much to do."

Ghirahim snapped his fingers, and Ian snarled violently. He gripped his head in agony while screaming. This time however, it was in his normal voice. He was screaming for Vaati to get out of his head and to leave his friends alone.

"Fight it Ian! We know you can do it!" I yelled.

"Remember all that you have been through!" Starfire yelled along with me.

Ian continued to struggle for control. The symbol on his forehead repeatedly faded and reappeared. Unfortunately, Vaati regained control of Ian's body, and sent six streams of electrical energy right at us. Each shot hit everyone except for me, and they were knocked unconscious. I was left standing before a Vaati-possessed Ian, with little more than the Master Sword to defend myself. But my friends were all unconscious, and without their help I did not think that even the Master Sword would make a difference now.

"Ian… stop… this isn't you…" I said weakly.

_"No… it isn't."_ Vaati said coldly through Ian.

Faster than I could react, Ian zapped me with an electrical attack, and I fell to the ground. Before I slowly slipped into unconsciousness, I saw Ghirahim walk up next to Ian. Then another figure appeared as well, one concealed within a dark aura. The last thing I heard was a very sinister laugh coming from the new figure, and then I went unconscious just like the rest of my friends.


	9. Chapter 9: The Six Spires

Chapter Nine: The Six Spires

When I had regained consciousness, I was unable to move. I quickly realized that my arms had been chained to a large stone. The stone was glowing a light blue, and while chained to it, it felt like I was getting weaker and weaker with each passing moment. I weakly turned my head towards my hands, and discovered that I was not bound by chains, but some kind of dark energy. I attempted to struggle free, but with the amount of energy I had now, I don't think I would've been able to lift a feather. Fortunately, the stone stopped glowing, and some of my strength returned; not enough to free myself, but enough that I could lift my head again. I was in the center of a fairly large room that was dark all around.

"Where am I? And how am I going to get out of here?" I wondered to myself.

I did not have to wonder for long though, for all of the sudden, the dark energy surrounding my hands just disappeared. Still weak, I fell to my knees while breathing heavily.

"Need a hand?" A familiar voice asked.

I looked up and saw Ian standing over me, extending his hand. I jumped back and reached for my sword, but it wasn't there! At that moment, Raven stepped out from the shadows, carrying my sword and shield.

"Don't worry Link. Ian's on our side again." Raven assured me.

I sighed in relief, but was still a bit wary. The last time that we had seen Ian, Vaati had possessed him and made him knock all of us out. Was Ian really in control now?

"I was able to seize control of my mind again a while back. With some help from Raven." Ian told me.

"Right. We anticipated that someone might go after the Four Sword again, so during our training exercises I put some of my powers into Ian. When Vaati possessed him, I was able to help him fight him off. It was only a small portion though, so it took some time for it to work." Raven explained.

I remember during the fight against him, Raven had yelled at Ian for him to 'remember their training.' She must have meant for Ian to use the power Raven had given him. To think that Raven trusted Ian enough to lend him some of her power! The fact that she _still_ trusts him, even after what happened, was kind of a shock.

"Well apparently it didn't work fast enough…" I said while still trying to recover. "How long was I out?"

Both Ian and Raven were silent for a moment, but the truth soon came out.

"About three days…" Ian answered.

"Three days?!" I responded. "What about the others? Are they okay?"

"We… don't know. They're probably in the other spires." Ian told me.

Spires? What was he talking about? After a minute or two I got my answer. While Ian was still possessed by Vaati and the rest of us were knocked unconscious, he and Ghirahim had raised a gigantic tower in the center of the city with some kind of dark magic. The stone that I had been restrained upon was an object designed to drain energy from whatever comes into contact with it; not enough to kill its host though. That would explain why it stopped glowing; it must've been 'taking a break' so I could regain more energy for it to drain. Raven had been chained to a similar stone, and Ian had rescued her from it. Turns out, Vaati, while still possessing Ian, was guarding the stone sapping Raven of her energy. But this was the moment when Ian regained control, so he was able to free Raven; and now we had to go free the others too.

"Wait a minute. If Vaati had been guarding Raven, wouldn't that mean that someone was also guarding me?" I inquired.

Ian and Raven looked at each other with bewildered looks. Just then, we heard the footsteps of someone approaching from behind us. It was none other than Ghirahim, and once he was within our field of vision, he clapped him hands in a whimsical manner and laughed.

"Quite impressive, Ian, that you were able to overcome the influence of the Wind Mage." He said sarcastically. "But I'm afraid that that will be the least of your worries."

Raven handed me my sword. I drew the Master Sword from it's scabbard and placed my shield on my other arm. The three of us stood in battle ready positions, prepped for whatever Ghirahim would throw at us. In an instant, he disappeared, only to reappear directly behind us. He tried swiping at us with his black rapier, but we had seen this coming and dodged.

"That move again? Seen it." I taunted.

"Really? Maybe you should take a look behind you." Ghirahim said.

I didn't know what he meant at first, but upon turning around I saw another Ghirahim standing behind us! He caught us by surprise and swiped his sword three times, one of which tore part of Raven's cloak. Ghirahim was able to duplicate himself now?! Or maybe that other Ghirahim was just an illusion. Ian ran in to punch him, but when his hit connected, it went right through Ghirahim and he vanished. It _was_ an illusion! If Ghirahim was able to make illusions of himself now, we had to find a way to distinguish the real one from the fake.

As Ian and Raven were attempting to fight him, I got the idea to use my spirit mode powers. Perhaps then I would be able to see through the illusion. I focused, and through my glowing blue eyes I was definitely able to spot the fake. The real Ghirahim was putting off a red aura, while the fake had none. While he was distracted by Ian and Raven throwing their magic attacks at him, I rushed in and bashed him with my shield. This stunned him momentarily, long enough for Raven to wrap him in shadow magic and lift him into the air. She now had Ghirahim restrained, and it seemed like he couldn't warp out of her grip. Now maybe we could get some answers.

"Alright, talk! Why are you draining us of our energy?!" Raven demanded.

"Where did you take the Four Sword?!" Ian demanded.

"And what are you planning?!" I demanded.

From within Raven's grip, Ghirahim laughed maliciously. I didn't know whether it was because this was part of his plan, or just because he was downright crazy. His laughter ceased and he answered us.

"Oh, it's not _my_ plan. It's my _partner's_. It has been from the start." He told us.

Partner? Did this mean that Ghirahim had a new master? Ian demanded that Ghirahim tell us who he was talking about. But he simply told us that we would find out soon enough. Then suddenly, Ghirahim vanished! He _had_ been able to warp out of Raven's grip; he was just toying with us from the start! However he had apparently warped somewhere else, as there was no sign of him in the area anymore.

* * *

After I had regained the rest of my strength, Ian and Raven continued explaining the current situation. The tower that Ghirahim had raised was contained within a barrier. The stone I was chained to was not only meant to drain my power, but was also maintaining the barrier. There were seven of these stones contained within six spires which were extensions of the tower. Each of our friends were held captive along with these stones, and no doubt having their energy drained too. I could only imagine the horror they must be going through; it made me feel awful. I turned around to face the stone I had been chained to and tried thrusting the Master Sword into it. However, my sword had no effect; it didn't even leave a scratch.

"Vaati's power created these stones, and only Vaati's power can destroy them." Ian told me.

"And fortunately for us, Ian can use that power." Raven continued.

Ian stepped up to the stone, and raised his hand. Purplish energy began forming in his palm, and with a flash he shot out an energy wave at the stone. It blasted a hole right though it, and then crumbled into dust. He walked back over to us and sighed. He was still worried that he might lose control again, but Raven told him that he did not need to worry as long as she was with him. The three of us exited the spire, and I saw exactly what Ghirahim had done. Rising out from the middle of the city was an enormous black tower. It rose so high into the sky that even when I bent my neck all the way back I still couldn't see the top. It was surrounded by a multicolored barrier that was keeping even the outside wind from getting in. Two of the stones powering the barrier were destroyed, and four more remained.

The spire I had been kept in was within the park. The closest one from there was near one of the Jump City banks. It had risen from within the building, so the entrance was the bank itself. When we got inside, we were standing in a large circular room. Pulsating red markings were upon the walls, most likely signs of the energy being drained from one of our friends. Raven pointed out that there was a door on the other side of the room, but right when we had noticed this, both the door in front of us and the exit became blocked by red barriers. Then all of the sudden, a gigantic armor-clad knight dropped down on us from out of nowhere. Its armor was black and had the same red markings as the walls of the room. It was carrying a large sword in one hand and a buckler shield in its other. The knight swung the sword down into the ground in a display of power. As intimidating as this was, we weren't going to let this hulking brute stand in our way.

We stood ready to face the dark knight standing before us, who was also in a battle ready stance. The knight made the first move, swinging his sword horizontally. It was surprisingly fast for its size. Ian and Raven were able to leap back and avoid it, but I stood and blocked the attack with my shield. The force of the attack made me stagger; it had hit me so hard that it nearly wrenched my arm out of its socket! I got my balance back and ran up to slash the knight in its chest, but its armor repelled any attack I tried. It was about to attack again, and I was dangerously close. But Raven was able to use her powers to get me out of there at the last second. I thanked her, but now we needed a new strategy. Maybe if we could remove the knight's armor, then we could damage it.

Raven tried to use her powers to remove the armor piece by piece, but the knight used it's buckler shield to block her attempts. It's shield could repel shadow magic?! That was going to make things harder. I went into spirit mode to keep up with the knight. It tried attacking me several times, but while I was in spirit mode I was able to evade each attack much more quickly. Its sword came at me vertically, but I bashed my shield against it to counter-attack, which caused the knight to stagger momentarily, just enough time for Raven to remove one of its shoulder plates. Ian shot energy blasts at the knight's feet to try and slow it down. This kept it from moving too fast, but it had no effect on its sword attacks. I kept using my shield to counter, and Raven kept removing its armor. Once its helmet came off, we saw that underneath was a vile looking dark red monster.

It jumped back and threw its sword at us. We dodged the attack and the sword became stuck in the wall. The monster then placed its hand on the red markings upon the wall, and energy flowed into the beast. In its other hand, another sword formed, but this one was thinner and lighter. It then lunged at us, much faster than it was able to with its armor. It attacked faster too, but without its armor it was vulnerable to attack. I deactivated spirit mode to conserve energy, but I was still able to keep up with the monster now that its attacks weren't as powerful. Ian helped by once again trying to slow the monster down, but this time he added in a few of his own attacks as well. He hit the beast's head several times, dazing it for a few seconds, which gave me time to attack with my sword. It still did not seem like the monster would yield, at least not until the sword that the monster had been using before came crashing down on top of it. We turned around to discover that Raven had used her powers to turn the monster's own sword against it. After a blow like that, the monster fell to the ground and disintegrated. Once gone, the barriers blocking the doors in the room vanished.

* * *

On the other side of the door was the barrier stone, and chained to it by dark energy was Robin. He was barely conscious as the glowing red stone was draining his energy. Without a moment's pause Ian raised his hand towards the dark energy chains and with one swipe the chains vanished. Robin fell to his knees, freed from the stone but still drained of most of his energy. Raven and I went over to help him up. He weakly raised his head, seeing me, Raven, and Ian. Robin weakly stood up and went to reach for one of his weapons, no doubt remembering how Ian had turned against us before. Before he could though, we explained everything that had happened; about how Ian regained control of his mind, and how Ghirahim was draining our energy.

"Why… why is he doing this?" Robin asked us, still trying to recover his energy.

"We don't know. But we do know that Ghirahim isn't working alone. He has a 'partner'. And I don't think that it's Vaati." Raven answered.

"Well, if Vaati isn't controlling Ian, where is he?" Robin inquired.

"His consciousness probably went back into the Four Sword." Ian stated. "Vaati's spirit is still trapped in the sword. Maybe that's why he's doing this; to gather enough energy to break the Four Sword's seal."

"What about the others?" Robin asked.

"They're still being held captive within the other spires. I was too until Ian and Raven got me out." I answered him.

"And what about Starfire?" He asked me with a sour look. "I would've thought that saving her first would've been your top priority. Or maybe you really _don't_ care about her as much as you claim."

His comment really stung, literally actually as I felt the mark on my left arm sting. I grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and lifted him up, close enough so that he could see the 'ticked-off' expression on my face.

"You'd better watch what you say, bird boy! Because you're not exactly in the best position to be making snide remarks!" I told him, barely being able to control my temper.

Before I was able to do anything else though, Raven came in-between us and told us to calm down. The truth was that there was no definitive way to tell which Titan was in which spire. We had no way to tell that Robin was the one being held captive here. Ian interrupted us, saying that that was not important right now; that what _was_ important was rescuing everyone and destroying the tower barrier so we could stop Vaati's resurrection. He then focused his attention on the barrier stone, raised his hand, and shot an energy wave at it. The stone crumbled to dust, just like the last one, and the red glow throughout the spire ceased. Now there were only three barrier stones left to smash, and three more of our friends left to save. I was very worried for them, especially for Starfire. I felt terrible from the thought of what she must be going through right now. Once Robin had enough of his strength back, we wasted no time and headed for the next spire. What threat was awaiting us there? Which of our friends would we rescue next? And who was this 'partner' that Ghirahim was talking about?


	10. Chapter 10: The Spirit Guardian

Chapter Ten: The Spirit Guardian

(Starfire's Narration)

I do not know exactly how long I had been knocked unconscious, but when I had awoken I found that I could not move my arms. They were chained by some form of dark energy to a large light green stone, and it felt like it was sapping the very life energy out of my body while I was chained to it. Tamaranians are more durable than most beings however, so I had enough energy within me to at least raise my head up. I was being contained within the center of a large dark room and was unable to see any walls beyond the darkness. I wondered if my other friends were in a similar situation. If so I was quite worried for Link; he suffers enough from his curse. But also, it is likely that at least one of them would manage to escape and come to our aid. I just hoped that it would be soon.

_"Hope as hard as you want… it will make no difference…" _Someone said from within the darkness.

The demonic sound of this voice caught me by surprise, and I looked all around me, demanding for whoever had spoken to show themself. It felt cold all around me and a chill ran down my spine, and then from out of the darkness came not a person, but a heart-shaped mask adorned with spikes that was floating in midair. I remembered what this was; it was the mask monster that Link and I had accidentally freed from the black box on the Phantom Island. Majora.

"You! You are the monster that escaped from the Phantom Island!" I declared. "I believe that your name is Majora, correct?"

_"Indeed. Rather surprising that you would know my name… I assume one of the light spirits informed you of my existence. Although I doubt that they told you much… they keep so many secrets. But then again… if you knew everything from the start, what fun would that be?"_ Majora responded.

The way that Majora was talking it almost seemed as if this was all just a game to him. I did not know what to expect from this… whatever it was, but I could tell that this Zarbnarg meant business of some variety.

"You are the one behind this aren't you?! The demon within the Four Sword. You plan on setting him free, don't you?" I inquired.

_"Is it that obvious? Well, you are correct. I do indeed intend to release the Wind Mage from his prison. With a little help from you and your friends." _Majora responded, squinting his eyes vilely.

The stone that I was chained to was how he planned to do this. It did not just feel like my energy was being drained, it _was_ being drained! But it did not drain me enough to kill me, as it deactivated every so often so I could regain my energy, only for it to take it away again. Majora claimed that merely seeing me being tortured was a reward in his eyes.

"Lanayru told me your story. About how you destroyed the land of Hyrule. I assure you that I am not going to let you get away with that! None of us are! We will make sure that your plan fails!" I declared to Majora.

Majora laughed evilly. To think that the monster that had not only destroyed the home of my ancestors, but also banished them from the Earth, was floating right in front of me, and I was unable to do anything about it. If my hands had been free, I would've either shot a supercharged starbolt right through it, or cleaved it in half with my Spirit's Sword. But unfortunately my hands were not free, so regrettably, all I could do was stand there and listen to Majora gloat.

_"By the time your friends are free, it will be too late, little guardian. I will already have all the energy that I require. And then, phase two of the Wind Mage's resurrection can begin."_ He said as he turned around.

I could see the flaming dark aura billowing out from the back of the mask had begun to burn slightly faster. It was as if the aura's movement reflected Majora's mood, and right now it seemed like he was thinking of something devious; something that only he knew. What puzzled me though was what Majora had called me just now; little _guardian_. I had never been called that before. What did Majora mean by that?

"What did you mean by _guardian?"_ I questioned. "Why did you call me that? I do not know of any _guardian_ that resides upon this world."

Majora turned to face me again, his aura now burning normally again; well, that is, if one could call anything about Majora 'normal'.

_"So… the spirits never told you did they? They never told you of their chosen one? The one that decided to interfere all those years ago?" _Majora assumed.

I knew not what Majora was speaking of. By _chosen one,_ did he mean Link? No, because if he had, he wouldn't have called _me_ guardian. Lanayru did tell me before that the spirits had chosen me, but they never mentioned a guardian of any sort.

_"I suppose I can tell you about it a little."_ Majora said. _"That sword that you carry, the blade that you call the Spirit's Sword, was originally held by a warrior chosen by the light spirits, whom they referred to as the Spirit Guardian. This individual had decided to stand against me, and much like you, this individual was a little girl."_

This would explain why Majora had recognized the Spirit's Sword before back on the Phantom Island. But still, what did this Spirit Guardian, who had existed hundreds of years ago, have to do with _me?_

_"It happened about 1000 years ago. I had risen to power, scorched the land of Hyrule into near lifelessness, and cast it's people into oblivion. But one little girl still stood to face me, holding a sacred blade infused with the power of the spirits themselves; this little girl was the Spirit Guardian. Using that sword, she defeated me, and I was sealed into that box that you and your friend found upon that island; the Demon's Box."_ Majora continued.

So the Spirit's Sword had been used by this Spirit Guardian against Majora in the past. Whoever this person was, it sounded like she had been a very powerful warrior. As I now held the same sword that she had, I wondered if I would live up to her legacy; although in my current position, I felt like I was putting her to shame. Majora floated closer, right up in front of my face! I was terrified as the mask's hideous eyes cast their piercing gaze upon me while so close. It almost felt as if the monster was going to suck my soul out.

_"Not only do you possess the very same sword that defeated me all those years ago, but you also happen to bear a striking resemblance to the Spirit Guardian herself…"_ Majora claimed. _"And __**that **__annoys me…"_

The Spirit Guardian looked similar to _me? _That must be why Majora had called me a guardian; because I reminded him of the warrior who had sealed him away nearly a millennium ago. However, that was not necessarily a good thing, as this fact no doubt made Majora despise me. He once again turned and floated a few feet away from me. Despite hearing of this story, I could not forget about the situation at hand.

"Well, I apologize for your dislike of me, but it hardly matters." I told him, although truthfully, I was not _that_ sorry. "Your plan will still fail, like it did in the past. Link and the others will be here soon. I know that Link would never leave me to suffer."

_"Perhaps… but until then, you are my prisoner… and I am going to make your stay here… QUITE THE NIGHTMARE!" _Majora declared.

Upon that last statement, Majora turned to face me again, but this time his eyes were open disturbingly wide, and the dark aura surrounding him was burning out of control. I stood there in horror as Majora started to change form. The mask that was his face grew to five times it's original size, and spikes on the bottom slanted downwards, with eight more appearing underneath of them to give the appearance of the mask having a mouth full of sharp teeth. Then, most frighteningly of all, eight red tentacles sprouted from the back of the mask. Majora now resembled how he looked in the drawings that were on Tamaran and the ruins on the Phantom Island! Unable to use my hands, I was powerless as the hideous abomination gazed vilely upon me, and I could tell from the look in his eyes that he was going to do unspeakable things to me. As the monster's eight tentacles were about to strike, all I could do was scream in terror, in the hopes that someone would hear me and come to my aid.

* * *

**This chapter is short, but portrays what Starfire is going through while held captive. Majora himself is guarding the spire ****containing her! And from the story he just told, he is definitely not too fond of Starfire. As for what he does to her at the end of the chapter... well, there are a few possibilities, even I'm not entirely sure, but it's definitely not something pleasant (I didn't want to state anything directly though, for obvious reasons).**


	11. Chapter 11: The Face of Evil

Chapter Eleven: The Face of Evil

(Link's Narration)

It was almost sunset when we approached the final spire. Ian and Raven managed to save me from the spire holding me, and we then freed Robin from another spire. Once he had gotten his strength back, we managed to save Cyborg and Beast Boy as well. Like the spire containing Robin, the spires containing Cyborg and Beast Boy had been guarded by a powerful monster. Cyborg's spire had been guarded by a tall metal beast covered with eyes. Robin's bird-erangs were very useful in taking it down, as was my boomerang. Beast Boy's spire was guarded by a reptile-like monster that could turn invisible. Fortunately, Cyborg's robotic eye was able to track it despite it's invisibility, and we made short work of it. With five of the six barrier stones destroyed, there was only one left; the one within the spire where Starfire was being held. I was very worried, and swore that I would do whatever it took to save her. However, while this was the last spire, it was also going to be the most terrifying.

We entered the spire, and I was immediately able to feel a chill blowing from within. It was similar to the feeling of nothingness that Starfire and I had felt when we were on the Phantom Island. The room was dark all around, save for the light green pulsating markings on the walls; no doubt the energy being drained from Starfire. Like in the previous spires, a door was on the other side of the room. I ran towards it, but when I got about halfway, a light green barrier shot up and blocked it, along with the way out. We were all prepared for whatever foul creature we had to face, but for the first few minutes, there was nothing.

"I have a bad feeling about this, y'all." Cyborg commented.

I looked all around the room, but there was nothing, even when I looked while in spirit mode; and Cyborg's robotic eye couldn't detect anything either. Then out of nowhere we all heard it; a bone-chilling evil laugh began to echo throughout the room. This sudden laughter caused Beast Boy's hair to stand on end.

"Dudes…. where is that coming from? And am I the only one who doesn't think it's funny?" Beast Boy asked.

He wasn't the only one. Whatever was laughing wasn't laughing out of humor.

_"I am impressed that you've made it this far, heroes…"_ a sinister voice echoed. _"However, in a moment… you'll wish that you hadn't…"_

What was it talking about? I thought for a moment, and then realized something; this voice sounded familiar. It sounded like… the monster from the Phantom Island! Just as I thought that, a ball of dark fire appeared out of nowhere right in front of us. It burned furiously for a few seconds before dying down, and from within the flames revealed exactly what I had feared. Floating in front of us was a dark purple heart-shaped mask lined with spikes on it's top and bottom. Dark aura billowed out from behind it in a snake-like fashion, and two vile eyes that seemed organic gazed upon us, as if it was looking through our souls. It was the mask monster that I had unintentionally freed from it's imprisonment on the Phantom Island, and the monster that Lanayru had warned us about; Majora.

The others were able to see the look of terror upon my face, but at this point they had no idea why.

"Link, what's going on?" Robin asked me. "Do you know what this… _thing_ is?"

"Yeah, I do. Starfire and I encountered it while we were traveling. Lanayru called it… Majora." I answered, while still trembling slightly.

Majora's eyes widened slightly, and even though it had no mouth, I could tell that if he had one that it would be sporting a sinister-looking smile. It suddenly disappeared, and then reappeared behind us without any warning.

_"Majora's __**Mask**_ _to be precise… as my true form is, well… currently unavailable at the moment." _Majora stated. _"But I don't require my real self to deal with any of you…" _

"Let us through right now!" I shouted at the mask.

_"Why whatever for?"_ Majora asked jokingly. _"Oh, of course! You came to save your little friend! I believe she goes by the name Starfire? Yes…such a vibrant spirit, that one. Or at least… it __**was**__.." _

The sound of that frightened me. What had this thing done to my best friend?!

"W-what are you talking about? What have you done with her?!" I demanded.

Majora once again disappeared, and reappeared directly in front of me. His sudden appearance shocked me so much that my heart almost stopped. He began laughing softly, and then backed up. The flaming aura coming from behind the mask began to burn even more, and it's eyes widened hideously. The mask grew five times it's original size, and the spikes on the bottom slanted downwards, to be joined by eight more underneath making the mask look like it had a mouth. Then with a hideous cracking sound, eight long red tentacles sprouted from behind the mask. This sudden transformation shocked all of us; Robin's hair looked even spikier than normal; Beast Boy changed into a cat out of fear and ran behind Cyborg, who looked as if he was going to blow a circuit or something. Raven and Ian both stared wide-eyed in fear, and I could've sworn that I felt even my hat stand on end for a second. Majora now looked even creepier than he had before; he looked exactly like how he had appeared in the ancient drawings on Tamaran and the Phantom Island!

_"What's the matter children? You look like you've seen a monster…"_ Majora said, laughing at his own statement afterwards.

So this was what we were up against; the very monster that destroyed the land of Hyrule in the past… and apparently he had a sense of humor. Not a good sign.

"What have you done to Starfire?!" I demanded again.

_"I __**hurt**_ _her, Link…. hurt her in ways that you can't possibly imagine…"_ Majora told me in a voice that was even more demonic than before.

He then looked upon his own tentacles, which were dangling in front of him in a sinisterly playful manner. Majora had hurt her?! If that was true then I was going to cut Majora into so many pieces that a magnifying glass wouldn't be able to find them! But what he had stated…. _in ways that I can't possibly imagine_… what did he mean by that? I didn't know, but apparently Robin had an idea.

"YOU SICK MONSTER!" Robin shouted at Majora.

_"Ha ha ha ha! Looks like someone is good at stating the obvious…" _Majora responded mockingly.

We were all aware that Majora was a monster. Still, whatever he had done to Starfire, I was going to make sure that Majora would pay. I drew the Master Sword and charged towards him, determined to wipe that smile off his face. Majora didn't even try to dodge; he took my attack and was sliced right in half.

"Booyah!" I heard Cybrog say from behind me.

"That was easier than I imagined…" Ian stated.

Ian was right. It had been easy… _too_ easy. Even while cleaved in half, we could all hear Majora's laughter echo throughout the spire. I turned around to see the two halves of the mask still floating in midair, then we all witnessed some black slime-like substance come out of the mask's 'wounds' and pull the mask back together. Once its two halves were united again, the cut from my attack just disappeared! Majora then turned to face me and chuckled, sporting an amused look on his face.

_"Was that supposed to hurt me?"_ Majora teased. _"Sorry to disappoint you, but reckless attacks like that will do you no good."_

I could hardly believe this! Majora had just been cut in half by the Master Sword, the legendary blade said to repel any evil, and he had just shrugged it off like it was nothing! If the Master Sword wasn't be able to bring him down, could any of our attacks stop him? Robin was the next to attack; he pulled out two of his bird-erangs and merged them into a sword of his own. He slashed at Majora several times, which cut off a few of his tentacles. Unfortunately, they just grew back, and Majora started sending them towards Robin in a stabbing motion. He dodged them, with the last attack just barely strafing him. The attack had still ripped his cape though, which surprised me greatly; wasn't his cape supposed to stronger than steel?!

"_Who's next?"_ Majora asked wickedly.

Cyborg tried next, after he pulled Beast Boy, who was still a cat, off of his leg. He threw himself at the monster, throwing several punches. The first few missed, but the last one connected with great force, sending Majora back a few feet. However, that was all that the attack had done; it didn't even dent the mask! Majora even went as far as to say that it tickled! Cyborg checked the settings on his sonic cannon, probably amping up the power, and then aimed it at Majora.

"Eat this!" Cyborg shouted before he fired his sonic cannon.

The blast looked stronger than normal due to the amped up power; it looked strong enough to blow a hole through several buildings. Once again, Majora did not dodge. Instead he opened his mouth extremely wide and literally _ate_ the attack!

"Whoa… this thing has one weird appetite!" Beast Boy, who was now in human form, remarked.

Majora licked his teeth with a 'tongue' made of dark aura, then laughed at Cyborg's attempt. Then faster than anyone could react, Majora shot two fiery lasers from his eyes that hit Cyborg right in the chest. He was thrown back, and the laser had damaged his chest plate. Majora was chuckling at the situation, distracted long enough for Beast Boy to sneak around him. He turned into a tiger and attacked one of Majora's tentacles. He had it in his mouth before Majora noticed and threw Beast Boy straight into the wall. He changed back to a human and spat in disgust.

"That tasted so nasty!" Beast Boy said while lying on the ground.

_"Can't take the heat, Titans? Then you should have stayed out of my kitchen! Because today's main course is fried heroes!" _Majora taunted.

He fired his lasers straight towards Beast Boy, who was still lying on the ground and still recovering from the last attack. Fortunately, Raven erected a barrier of shadow magic around him right before they would've hit. Majora stared towards her in spite, and she returned it with a ticked-off look of her own. She chanted her mantra of 'Azarath Metrion Zinthos', and sent a wave of black energy towards Majora. I have seen Raven's powers make short work of most enemies when she sent it directly at them, but Majora wasn't exactly 'most enemies'. The energy surrounded Majora, and it looked like it had an effect at first, but then in an instant Majora broke free with little effort! We were all surprised by this, including Raven herself.

_"Shadow magic? Oh please… I am the __**master**_ _of darkness! Your father's pitiful excuse for magic has no effect on __**me**__, little girl!" _Majora claimed.

Majora was immune to Raven's powers?! What in the world _was_ this thing?! There was no time to wonder, as Majora spewed an enormous blast of fire from his mouth straight at Raven. She was still distracted by the fact that her powers had no effect on Majora and was too late to dodge. Fortunately, Ian jumped in front of the attack and held up both of his hands, attempting to shield her from the attack. Unfortunately, Ian wasn't able to create energy barriers as well as Raven could; and while Raven had been protected from the attack, Ian was hit by most of it. The fire had burned away his jacket, revealing his black shirt underneath, but other than that Ian barely looked scathed.

_"So, the Wind Mage's little puppet thinks he can protect his friends from me? How foolish… soon the Four Sword will shatter, and Vaati will have a new body… ready to join me in my glorious plan. His only mistake was to use such a rebellious youth as his puppet." _Majora said. _"But it's only a matter of time… and once Vaati's prison is no more, we will have no further use for you…"_

Majora began laughing insanely, and Ian looked like he was getting angrier and angrier. As Majora's laughing continued, Ian finally lost it; dark wind began blowing around him, and the eye-shaped symbol appeared on his forehead. His eyes were glowing dark red, and they were fixed angrily upon Majora. Ian blasted Majora with an energy blast, and when it hit, part of the mask was blown off. Majora quickly regenerated though, quick enough to dodge Ian's attempts at physical attacks. Ian was still full of rage, and seemed to grow more enraged with every one of his attacks that missed. I tried to help by shooting several arrows at Majora, and even though some of them did hit, they just burned up on contact. It wasn't long before I was out of arrows, and Majora didn't even look _slightly_ damaged.

_"Attack as much as you like children… your rage is only making this easier for me!"_ Majora stated.

Our rage? It was then that I think I realized why were weren't hurting Majora; perhaps Majora was feeding off of our anger and making him stronger! It did not matter what kind of attack we threw at him. As long as there was rage in our hearts, Majora was invincible. Maybe if I could quell the rage within my heart, I could damage him. This wouldn't be easy, considering what this monster had done to Starfire, but it was our only chance! I took a deep breath and tried clearing my mind, still focusing on the task at hand but clearing out any rageful thoughts. When I felt no anger within me, I drew my sword and went into spirit mode. The Master Sword shined even brighter than before, perhaps because of the rage leaving my heart. While Majora was still evading Ian's attacks, I rushed towards him and sliced off several of his tentacles. This time instead of shrugging off the attack, Majora shrieked in agony. My attack had definitely had an effect, because when Majora tried to regenerate, nothing happened.

_"IMPOSSIBLE! Unless…"_ Majora said, apparently realizing exactly what happened.

Now that he wasn't immune to my attacks, I began to cut off the rest of Majora's tentacles. Majora was now fighting back for real; trying to whip me with his tentacles and burn me with his fire. Despite his erratic attack patterns, I was able to evade them and cut off all of his tentacles. With nothing blocking me I leapt towards the mask and kicked it to the ground. Majora was pinned to the ground underneath of my foot, but despite the fact that my sword was pointed directly at him, he was still laughing.

_"Impressive kid. You certainly utilize your abilities well… but if you think that it's going to end here… then you're crazier than I am!" _Majora taunted.

If he was trying to enrage me again, it wasn't going to work. I held my sword firmly with both hands, prepared to deliver a final strike.

_"I am a being with power that you cannot possibly comprehend! An immortal! Though you may shatter me now… know that I __**will**_ _be back… and I assure you… I will break that unbreakable spirit, kid!" _Majora gloated.

I didn't know if he was bluffing or not, but at this point I didn't care. I thrust the Master Sword straight into the middle of the mask. The mask began to crack, and then after a few seconds, it shattered into pieces as if it were glass. The dark aura that had surrounded Majora faded away, as did the barriers blocking the doors. Finally, we had won this fight.

* * *

I turned towards the others and asked if everyone was alright. Ian was back to normal with help from Raven, although he didn't have his jacket anymore. The other guys were alright too; Robin and Beast Boy had scars and bruises all over them, but otherwise they were fine. Cyborg's chest plate was still torn open a little, but he was already patching it up. I was relieved that everyone was okay; I just hoped Starfire would be okay too. Without any delay, I ran towards the door and threw it open, with the others following soon after. Beyond the doors, we all saw the the horrible sight. Starfire was indeed chained to the barrier stone within the room, but unlike the others who had simply been drained of their energy, Starfire looked like she had been beaten up and cut by something; and by something, I meant Majora.

I rushed over to the stone as fast as I could. Her outfit was torn in several places, and she was unconscious. I placed my hand on her shoulder and shook her slightly to wake her. There was no response. I tried several more times, becoming more desperate with each attempt, but still she did not wake. I did not want to believe that she was gone… I _wouldn't_ believe it!

"Starfire! Wake up! It's me! I'm here…" I said with desperation.

The others saw my attempts, and I knew that they were fearing the worst. I felt her arm for a pulse. There was one, but it was very faint. I tried shaking her some more, but nothing happened. I slumped down in depression. What had Majora done to her?! What… what have _I _done to her… I felt like this was all _my_ fault. If I hadn't been in that argument with Robin a few days ago, none of this would be happening; I wouldn't have left, I would've never freed that monster, and Starfire… wouldn't be in this position. My eyes were full of tears, so much that I could barely see. What I said to her next I whispered softly so that the others couldn't hear.

"Kori… please… don't leave me…" I whispered. "I… I… I love you…"

At that moment, I heard Kori weakly speak my name. The moment I heard this I shot my head to see her eyes open, if only slightly. I wiped away the tears in my eyes, and responded to her. I didn't know if she had heard what I had whispered, but my heart was lifted at the sight of her beautiful eyes.

"Link… you came for me…" She said. "Majora said that you wouldn't… but I… I knew that you would…"

"Of course I came… I could never just leave you to suffer… you're my best friend Starfire… you mean the world to me…" I replied to her.

I called her Starfire at this moment because the others were within earshot, otherwise I would've called her Kori, like she had wanted me to; and I don't think she wanted the others to know her real name yet. She smiled at me, and I smiled back.

"Umm… sorry to interrupt this touching moment, but I believe we still have work to do." Ian told us.

He swiped his hand and the energy chains holding Starfire captive vanished. She was still very weak right now and she would've fallen to the floor, but I quickly went up and caught her before she did. After everything that had just happened, I could not help but to hold her tightly in my arms.

"I thought I had lost you…" I told her.

"Do not worry Link…" She told me weakly. "I promised you… I will always be there for you…"

"And I for you…" I responded.

Our embrace lasted for a few minutes, and once it was over Ian stepped up to the front of the barrier stone and destroyed it with a blast of dark energy. Once the stone had crumbled away, the ground around us began to shake. We exited the spire to see what was going on. Starfire and I were the last ones to exit, and once outside with the others we witnessed exactly what was causing the ground to shake. The multicolored barrier surrounding the dark tower in the center of the city had turned dark purple, and was rotating around the tower at an incredibly fast rate. It lasted for a few seconds, and then a blinding flash of light obscured the entire city. When we could see again the barrier around the tower was gone; it was now exposed to the outside world, and we could now enter it. Though after what we had all been through, we decided to take a short break to recover first. Starfire in particular needed time to recover from her terrifying experience, and from all of the sick and twisted things that Majora had done to her. And I myself was trying to comprehend everything that had just happened. If Majora was behind all of this, did that mean that he was the 'partner' that Ghirahim had mentioned before? And what did Majora mean when he said that he would break my unbreakable spirit?

Little did any of us know however, that within the spire where we had faced Majora, the shards of the mask were gathering together again.


	12. Chapter 12: The Dark Tower

Chapter Twelve: The Dark Tower

We took a few hours to rest before we would infiltrate the dark tower in the center of the city. The tower rose so high into the air that it's top was not visible from the ground, and knowing Ghirahim that is exactly where he and Vaati were. Vaati was still imprisoned within the Four Sword, and Ghirahim and Majora had been draining our energy to try and break the Four Sword's seal. I just hoped that they hadn't already gathered enough power to do it already; although if they had we would have probably noticed by now. We were all gathered within the park, which was still devastated by the emergence of the spire that I had been contained within. Robin was busy discussing plans of action with the rest of us. He told us that it was likely that Ghirahim knew that the barrier had been destroyed and was expecting us. Still, Robin suggested that we try to sneak through the tower and avoid any monsters. After our fight against Majora, Robin was worried that the monsters in the tower may be just as worse. Somehow I didn't think so though, as Majora was clearly on a higher level than that of a mere monster, but we all agreed to follow his plan regardless.

After we went over our attack plan, we took some time to recover form everything we had been through in the last few hours. Robin, Cyborg, and Beast Boy were gathered together and discussing something; perhaps battle tactics against Ghirahim and, should he succeed in resurrecting him, Vaati. Ian and Raven were seated together on the ground a few feet away, probably talking about how Ian had lost control again. Of course, it could have been about something else too… something that was none of my business. And Starfire… she was sitting on bench a few yards away, and her head was down. The moment I noticed, I walked over to her and asked her if she was alright.

"Oh! Everything is alright Link, you do not need too…" She began to tell me.

She stopped before she could finish though, and the look on her face turned to sadness. She turned away from me, not wanting me to see her like this, and then answered my question honestly.

"No… everything is not alright…" She told me. "I am still very… _disturbed_ about everything that Majora did to us… to _me_…"

I asked her if I could sit down next to her. She really looked like she needed a friend right now, and I was willing to listen to anything she wanted to say. She nodded her head, and I quietly sat down beside her, making sure that there was at least an inch between us. In her current state I don't think it was best to get_ too_ close to her.

"What exactly did Majora do to you?" I asked her. "Did he beat you up? Did he try to make you lose hope? Did he…"

I was going to ask more, but from the look on her face I could tell that Kori did not want to talk about it. I decided to drop the subject; whatever Majora did to her, it must of been horrible! I instead asked her if she wanted to talk about something else. After a few seconds, she nodded.

"Link? Do you remember the, umm… _moment_ that we… almost had while we were on the Phantom Island?" She asked me.

I wasn't sure at first what she meant by _moment_, but then it quickly hit me; she was talking about when we were stuck in that underground shaft, and when we almost… kissed.

"Uhh… yeah I remember that." I responded. "Why?"

"Well… suppose that we had not been interrupted by Majora… and we had been able to finish. Would you have let me?" She asked me.

That question of hers made me blush. She was talking to me about this now?! While Ghirahim still had the city under his grip?! Still, I could understand why she'd ask this now. Majora had filled her head with lies about me abandoning her. She already told me that she did not believe him, but she probably still had doubts… and wanted to know if I truly cared about her. I answered her question, albeit nervously, with a yes.

"Then… would you let me… now?" She asked me.

She leaned a little closer to me, still with a somewhat sad look but with a glint of happiness in her eyes. My heart was beating so fast that it felt like it might jump out of my chest. Her face was only about an inch away from mine, and while I would've liked to kiss her very much, I backed away. Kori was confused, but I quickly explained.

"Kori… You know I would like this… a lot… but I don't think now is the right time." I told her. "I think we should wait until this whole ordeal is over. You know, after we've stopped Ghirahim and Vaati, and saved the city."

Kori looked a little reluctant to agree at first, but after a thought or two she agreed. This did not seem like the proper time for such a thing; and I also mentioned that Robin might be watching. She giggled at that comment, telling me that I did not have to worry about Robin getting mad at me for something like that; because even of he did get angry, she had already established the fact that she had broken up with him. I knew that, but I was still a little worried; if not for him hurting me out of jealousy, then for the thought of _me_ hurting _him_… which would be a lot worse.

* * *

After we had taken time to recover, we made our way to the dark tower. With the barrier destroyed the main entrance was now wide open. When we were inside, we saw that the interior consisted of a winding staircase rising up to top, which of course we were unable to see from the bottom.

"Whoa… that's a loooong way up." Beast Boy remarked.

Starfire suggested that she, Raven, and Beat Boy could simply fly us up there. However, that would've been a bad idea. Lining the walls along the staircase were large stone eyes. They were all positioned about ten feet from each other, and they each had a black crystal in the center. They were most likely acting as sentries, and who knows what would happen if we passed in front of them! We had no choice; we had to climb the stairs on foot to avoid the sentry eyes.

Every time we passed a sentry eye we all had to duck to avoid it's gaze. Fortunately, the eyes were not moving, so it was just a simple tactic of looping under each of them. Even so, the staircase rose to an unbelievable height and would likely take us hours to reach the top on foot! After about five hours we were only a few miles from the top. Beast Boy complained that his feet were killing him, so he changed into a ferret and climbed onto Cyborg's shoulder, despite him complaining at first. We stopped for a moment and looked up. We could very faintly see a stone hatch on the ceiling high at the top. We continued sneaking past the sentry eyes on our way to the top, but unfortunately Beast Boy being on top of Cyborg's shoulder added a little extra height and caused one of the sentry eyes to spot us! The crystal in the center turned red, and the stone eye opened up to reveal a hidden dark chamber. We could hear a strange scuttling sound from inside the chamber. Then only a moment later, nearly a dozen giant black spiders started crawling out of the wall. Each of them were almost as big as Cyborg, and they were too many to fight; especially with so little room! There was only one other option: to run as fast as possible to the stone door up top!

There was no time to try and avoid the remaining sentry eyes, so as we passed each of them, they all began to open and even more spiders came swarming out! At this point, Raven thought it a good idea to use her shadow magic to help, so she created a dark platform underneath of us and levitated us further up the stairs. The spiders were surprisingly fast and we were only able to stay about twenty feet away from them, close enough that we were still able to see venom dripping from their fangs. When we made it to the top, Cyborg thrust open the stone door as fast as he could, and we all hastily passed through. The spiders were nearly upon us, and there were now at least sixty of them. Fortunately, Cyborg slammed the door shut just in time, smashing one spider in-between it in the process. Once we were able to catch our breath, we saw that we were in a very large dark room, similar to the rooms within the spires where we had to face monsters guarding the barrier stones. So we still weren't at the top; but I had a feeling that we were close.

"It's so dark in here… Star, can you give us some light?" Robin asked.

Starfire responded by forming a starbolt in her hand, which lit up most of the room in green light. Even though there was light now we could not see any exit.

"C'mon, we need to find an exit and fast! I don't wanna have to deal with any more spiders. I mean, did you see the size of those things!" Beast Boy exclaimed.

Something had caught Cyborg's attention, for he was looking up at the ceiling. The rest of us each looked up one-by-one, and saw exactly why Cyborg had a freaked out look on his face.

"Uh, BB? I think we have bigger problems…" Cyborg told him.

"Bigger problems?! How could we have a bigger problem than those…" Beast Boy began to say, but paused when he saw what was on the ceiling.

Clinging to top of the chamber was another giant spider, except this one was even bigger; it was nearly the size of a house! It also had a giant eye on top of it's head, although it was closed right now. The spider wasn't moving; it must've been asleep, which meant we could safely look for a way out of this room, but we had to be quiet. Starfire dimmed her starbolt a little so the spider wouldn't notice us. Beast Boy mentioned though that we probably wouldn't have to worry about the spider waking up because of the light; we had more to worry about the force of our footsteps, because if we made too many vibrations the spider might notice. Beast Boy said that he should know because he's actually been a spider before, several times.

We quietly searched around the room for an exit, stopping every few minutes to see if the spider was still asleep. Unfortunately our efforts yielded nothing, as there were no exits other than the way back down; and that army of spiders was likely still beneath that hatch. As we paused to think of what to do next, I heard a slight rustling sound in the room, and I could've sworn that something was watching us. We all looked up to confirm my fear, as the giant spider's eye was now wide open and a big yellow eye was staring down on us! The colossal arachnid was now awake and began scuttling loudly across the ceiling in our direction! When it left its spot I immediately noticed that there was a door in the area it had been blocking before. It looked sealed shut, and as long as this spider was in here I don't think we were going to get it open that easily; we had to get rid of the spider first.

It wasn't moving very fast, but as it moved, bits of rubble came off of the ceiling. Either the ceiling wasn't very stable, or this was one powerful bug! It stopped in one spot for a moment and opened the big eye on its head.

"Well, as long as it's up there, what's it gonna do? _Stare_ us to death?" Cyborg joked.

The spider didn't seem to think it was funny though, for right after that comment the spider's pupil contracted and a bright red laser shot out from its eye straight at us. It had shot down a few feet ahead of us though, so we had enough time to dodge. After it missed, the spider closed its eye and scuttled to a different part of the ceiling to try again. It's laser wasn't very accurate though, as the next few times it tried it also missed. It's repetitive attacks were beginning to annoy us though.

"Hey! Why don't you come down here and fight us like a man?!" Cyborg shouted at it.

"That would be hard for it to do, considering that it's a spider." Ian stated.

"You know what I meant!" Cyborg replied.

Ian's attempt at trying to lighten up the situation was appreciated, but it wasn't really helping. When the spider opened its eye again, I noticed how fragile it looked compared to the rest of its body. After dodging the laser yet again, I suggested to everyone that we aim our attacks at its eye right when it opens. Cyborg readied his sonic cannon, and Starfire aimed one of her starbolts at it. I was about to aim my bow at the eye, but then I remembered that I had run out of arrows in our previous battle against Majora. Still, these two attacks were enough, as when they hit the spider screeched in pain and fell to the floor with a loud crash. Now was our chance to attack it while it was on its back. We threw everything we had at the bug, but its tough exoskeleton made all of our attacks bounce off. After a few seconds the spider recovered its strength and got back on its feet. It was about to crawl back up to the ceiling, but Cyborg wasn't going to let it; he ran right in front of it and grabbed onto its head, trying to keep it from moving. Starfire went to help, and Raven added her powers to slow the spider down. However, even with all of this effort, it was only barely keeping the spider from moving.

Robin told Beast Boy to help out too. He changed into a T-rex and bit into one of the spider's legs. I ran up to the spider and jumped onto its back. The giant eye it had used to fire lasers at us was closed, and I wasn't able to open it. Fortunately, Ian came up along with me and used his dark powers to force the spider's eye open. The eye looked bloodshot, most likely fearing that it wouldn't survive the next hit. It was right to fear, because right at that moment I stabbed the spider's eye with the Master Sword. After a loud screech, the spider fell to its knees, all eight of them. The others had let go of the spider, and Beast Boy had changed back to human form, saying that the spider's leg tasted nasty. We all had a quick laugh, and then looked up at the doorway on the ceiling. There was a dark purple eye-shaped symbol glowing on it, which probably meant that only Vaati's power could open it. Fortunately we had Ian, who could use Vaati's power. Ian swiped his hand and the symbol disappeared. Raven levitated us to the ceiling, where Cyborg punched the door open.

* * *

Once on the other side, we were at the top of the dark tower. We were so high up from the ground that none of us could see any land off in the distance, and the wind was blowing harder than usual. Ian told us that he could feel a dark presence in the air, and after looking ahead we could see why. Standing within the center of the tower platform was Ghirahim, and he was performing some kind of ritual overtop a pedestal of some sort. And lying on top of the pedestal was the artifact that had started all of this; the Four Sword! The sight of it caused Ian to step forward.

"Ghirahim!" Ian shouted at him to get his attention.

Ghirahim slightly turned his head towards us; enough to converse with us, but still able to perform his ritual, whatever it was for.

"Ah, Titans. It's about time you showed up. I was afraid you were going to miss the show." Ghirahim said smugly. "Did you enjoy the pets I left for you? I thought that a tower full of spiders would be the best way to, what's the phrase… _freak you out?_"

"You know why we're here. If your smart, you'll hand over that sword." Robin warned him.

_"Oh, I think not."_ We heard a demonic voice say from nowhere. _"The Wind Mage's resurrection is nearly complete… and how fortunate for us that you Titans have brought exactly what we needed to finish it." _

All of the sudden, the air around us became even colder. That voice sounded familiar too, it sounded like… no, it couldn't be! However a flash of dark fire confirmed exactly what I had been fearing. When the fire cleared, floating before us was Majora, assuming the same horrifying form that he used to fight us in. He had shattered apart before, but now he looked good as new!

_"Surprised?"_ Majora asked as he saw our shocked expressions.

"No way! How are you still alive?!" Cyborg exclaimed.

"We all saw Link shatter you into pieces!" Robin stated.

_"I told you that I would be back… and, I am!"_ Majora responded.

"Yeah, but we didn't think it would be _this_ soon!" I replied.

We all stood ready to fight, but Majora simply laughed at our attempt. He turned around and floated over to the Four Sword, which began to exude dark aura.

_"Majora! I am growing impatient… release me from this accursed blade... NOW!"_ Vaati said from within the sword.

_"Be patient for just a little while longer Vaati, for the final step towards your resurrection has arrived."_ Majora told him.

What did Majora mean by 'the final step', and how had we been the ones to bring it? Ian had a worried look on his face, and Majora was looking directly at him. Had Majora meant that Ian was the final step? Was Vaati going to use him to break free of his prison?! We could see that Ian was getting angry; he must have remembered how he had lost control during our last encounter with Majora. Without warning, Ian ran towards Ghirahim and Majora, and punched Ghirahim out of the way. Ghirahim didn't even try to defend, which was a bit odd. Ian grasped the Four Sword in his hands, and raised it up. Was he going to try and smash it apart? Would that even do any good? He could risk freeing Vaati! We all shouted towards Ian, telling him to calm down and think about what he was doing. Ian managed to calm down, but just then something strange happened. The eye shaped symbol appeared on Ian's forehead, and a dark wind began to blow around him. However, it did not seem like Ian was being possessed at all; in fact, the dark wind wasn't blowing outwards, it was blowing… into the Four Sword!

_"Heh heh heh… all according to plan…"_ Majora gloated softly.

When the dark wind had ceased, the mark on Ian's forehead vanished, and the four sword began sparkling with what looked like black electricity. The blade turned black like it had before, but this time so did the hilt. We all heard a strange cracking sound, then to our surprise, the Four Sword broke apart in Ian's hand!

Dark aura began to coalesce where the sword had been, and then rose into the air. The dark wind from before begun blowing once again, but this time it was coming from the dark aura, which began to grow bigger. We could all hear sinister laughter coming from the aura as it kept growing. Once it stopped, ten bat-like wings sprouted from the sphere of darkness, along with two sharp horns on top. Finally within the center, a large eye opened up, similar to the symbol that had been upon Ian's forehead, along with two smaller red eyes underneath. There was no mistaking what had just happened; Majora's plan had succeeded. Vaati, the Wind Mage, had been reborn!

* * *

**Vaati has been resurrected and the Four Sword has shattered! Four Sword fans don't worry though, because the sword has not been destroyed completely. It's power still lives, but not in the way you may think...**

**I had spiders on the mind when I wrote this chapter, which is why I chose Armogohma as the boss of the tower (I was going to use Kholdstare, but I decided to use an icy boss in a different volume). **


	13. Chapter 13: The Wind Mage Lives

Chapter Thirteen: The Wind Mage Lives!

The Four Sword lay shattered upon the ground before Ian, and the imposing figure of Vaati the Wind Mage was now floating before us. Vaati gazed at his surroundings and upon us. Majora was behind him, with a devious smile on his face. I heard him whisper to Vaati that he'll let him take it from here, and then vanished. How had any of this happened anyway? If Ian was the final step to releasing Vaati, then why did Vaati allow Ian control of his own mind? Vaati's gaze was now fixed upon us, and all three of his eyes were slanted evilly.

_"Finally… after so many long years… I am free to rage once again! And this new body provided by Majora is… quite suitable."_ Vaati said.

"The new body that was formed by what was taken from us!" Starfire shouted at the demon.

Vaati chuckled at what Starfire had just shouted, and then flew closer to the ground. His descent caused the wind around us to blow even more, and at this point it was starting to hurt.

_"Nothing in life is free, little girl. But the best things in life… must be taken by force!" _Vaati responded un-insightfully.

As he came closer, we stood ready for battle. Robin threw several of his bird-erangs at Vaati, but it was no use; Vaati simply stopped them in mid-air and they broke apart. Starfire shot a few starblots at him, but Vaati dodged every one! Vaati was a lot faster than he looked, as he even dodged Cyborg and Raven's attacks. Vaati's center eye began to glow red.

_"My turn."_ He said.

From out of the dark aura surrounding him formed four smaller eyes that hovered right in front of him. They were also glowing red, and then without warning all seven eyes, including his two smaller ones, shot out lasers at us. We were able to dodge, but the force of all seven lasers blew a hole in the floor beneath us. Vaati's power was definitely great, but something was telling me that this was only a fraction of his devastating power. It's no wonder why he was sealed away!

_"Fools! Nothing short of an army even has a chance of besting me… and even _**_then_**_ you'll fail!"_ Vaati gloated.

Ian was on his knees a few feet away, still trying to contemplate everything that had happened. As Vaati's ominous figure hovered before him, Ian looked up at the demon. Vaati's center eye gazed at him deviously.

_"Still perplexed are we? Then allow me to fill you in…"_ Vaati began to tell him. "_You think that you and the sorceress forced me out of your mind, but in reality I never left… I let you have control… the anger you felt was exactly what I needed to complete my new body… the anger you felt towards Majora and I… fueled by your false hopes… absorbed into the barrier stones as you attempted to destroy them… with that anger the Four Sword has shattered, and I can now assume my new form!"_

After his last statement, Vaati once again began to change form. His eyes closed, except for his center eye, and around it his dark aura body began to change shape. Arms and legs sprouted from it, along with a human-shaped head. The center eye was now on the chest of his new body, while his two red eyes were upon the head. Sinister-looking claws sprouted on his hands and feet, and the horns that he had before were now on top of his head, accompanied by dark hair that resembled Ian's. He still had all ten of his wings but the dark aura that had comprised his previous form was now a cloak that covered his new body. Vaati had gone from looking like a bat-winged eye monster to looking like a demonic vampire of some sort. We were all in shock from his transformation, but none of us more so than Ian; it was almost as if he was looking at his own reflection!

_"You look surprised… _**_son_**_."_ Vaati said to Ian.

Raven stepped forward to defend Ian. She placed her hand upon his shoulder, noticing Ian's still terrified look, and looked up at Vaati with a spiteful look.

"Ian is_ not_ your son." Raven told Vaati.

_"As if it matters anymore…"_ Vaati scoffed. _"Now that I've been restored, I have no more use for the boy. No longer does he possess the power I granted him… and without that he is nothing!"_

As Ian heard this his head sank down in disgrace. Raven helped him up, although he still looked terrible right now. Vaati rose up into the air again, and said that he has wasted enough time on us and was going to move on to the city, no doubt to cause as much chaos as he pleased. He flew off of the tower and down into the city, and it was only a minute or two before I was able to hear the faint screams of innocent city folk.

* * *

We needed to find someway to stop Vaati. Robin suggested that we all go down into the city and try everything we could to stop Vaati's rampage. That was just like Robin to jump into action despite the odds against us. I suggested that we first help Ian get himself back together; even if he didn't have his powers anymore, he was still our friend and needed our help. Robin told me that there wasn't a lot of time to waste right now. We came to the agreement that he, Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Starfire would go and try to slow Vaati down by any means possible, while Raven and I would stay here to help Ian out and then join the rest of them. Before they left, I wished them all good luck and to be careful. Starfire wished us luck as well.

I walked over to Ian and Raven. Ian was looking down at the remaining shards of the Four Sword that now looked almost as dull as stone. The sword had been a family heirloom of sorts to Ian, so to see it destroyed like this was no doubt an awful sight to him.

"To think that my family's sword… could have caused all of this trouble…" Ian said weakly.

"That sword didn't do anything wrong… it was keeping Vaati from hurting anyone… if anything, that sword was a blessing." I told him.

"If we still had that sword, we might be able to beat Vaati and put him back in it." Raven mentioned. "But it's broken… likely beyond repair…"

None of us knew how to fix a sword, and without Ian's powers we had no way to match Vaati. Raven however told Ian that he shouldn't give up. She told him how she had lost her powers before in a battle against her father Trigon, a giant red demon who like Majora also claimed to be the master of darkness. She went on to tell him that she had almost given up then, but discovered that she had actually not lost her powers completely, that she still had them and used them to defeat Trigon and put him back in his prison. Raven suggested that Ian try one of his energy attacks. He insisted that he couldn't do it, but Raven told him to try anyway; there may have been a chance that Ian retained some of his old powers. With some reluctance, he raised his hand into the air and concentrated. To our surprise, a wave of energy came out of his hand, but instead of the dark purple color from before, the energy wave was a mix of purple, green, red, and blue! We had only assumed that Ian still had his old powers, but none of us had expected this!

"It seems that you've discovered your true power… the power granted to you by the Four Sword." A gentle voice said.

The voice had come from in front of us, and while Ian and Raven didn't know who had said it, I recognized the voice. Standing before us was a girl that looked about Starfire's age. She had pure white hair, violet eyes, and was wearing a long white dress. It was Kalena, the mysterious girl that I had encountered several times before during my journey nearly three years ago.

"Long time, no see." I said.

She smiled slightly. Raven asked me how I knew this person. I told them both of how I had met Kalena and how she had helped me before. Raven and Ian were about to introduce themselves, but Kalena said that she already knew their names. Ian though wanted to know what Kalena had meant when she said that he had discovered his 'true power'.

"When Ian's mother came into contact with the Four Sword, the spirit of the Wind Mage Vaati woke from his long slumber and infected the newborn Ian with some of his power, for use in his eventual resurrection. However, Vaati's power is not the only power that he received. The Four Sword reacted to Vaati's actions, and also placed some of it's own power into Ian as a countermeasure; the powers of earth, fire, water, and wind. Vaati may have placed a grip within Ian's mind, but the spiritual elements also became a part of Ian; preventing Vaati from ever having complete control." Kalena explained. "Vaati's influence kept Ian from ever realizing his true power. But now that Vaati no longer grips Ian's mind, that power has surfaced."

"This is all so confusing. Are you saying that I still have powers? And that my powers can defeat Vaati?" Ian asked.

"Yes. Precisely." Kalena answered.

"It seems a little odd that one random girl would just appear out of nowhere and have all of the answers for us. Who are you? And how do you know all of this?" Raven asked her.

Raven was looking at Kalena with a distrustful look. Ian and I looked upon her as well. Even with all of us looking at her with uncertainty, Kalena's expression remained neutral.

"I serve as the spirit's messenger." Kalena answered. "I travel throughout the world to assist those that need… enlightenment. When one travels as much as I do, one learns many things."

Kalena already knew about Vaati and the Four Sword. Did this mean that Kalena knew Ian's parents? What else wasn't she telling us? Before we could ask anything else though, a strange mist suddenly appeared and Kalena stepped back into it. When it cleared, Kalena was gone!

"You certainly meet some strange people when you travel, Link." Raven told me.

I wasn't sure how to respond to that, but it hardly mattered now. With Ian's powers back, or rather Ian's_ new_ powers, we now had a chance to defeat Vaati; hopefully once and for all. Raven was going to levitate us all down, but Ian discovered that he could once again levitate, so Raven only had to transport me, which put less strain on her powers. Even while levitating downwards, the tower was so tall that it took nearly half an hour.

* * *

Once on the ground, we saw most of the city up in flames. Vaati was definitely on a rampage, and our friends were barely holding him back. Robin was attempting to go toe-to-toe, or rather pole-to-claws with Vaati, while Cyborg was using his sonic cannon or even going as far as to rip an entire building from the ground and throw it at him. Vaati was simply able to phase through it though. Beast Boy had changed into a T-rex and went primal on Vaati, but Vaati was able to match his brute force. Starfire had unsheathed the Spirit's Sword and was using that to attack. She was at risk though, as while she was holding the Spirit's Sword her regular powers were temporarily rendered inert. Still, she was holding her own, able to beat back most of Vaati's attacks. But she was still new to using a sword, so I wasn't sure how long she could keep it up.

Vaati sent several fiery eyes at Starfire. She slashed aside three of them, but the fifth one stayed in midair and shot lasers at her. She tried to dodge, but one laser hit her on the shoulder. She gripped her shoulder in pain for a few seconds, and then held up her left hand to try and block the next laser; although I don't think it would've worked. However, something odd happened. Her sword started glowing and a sphere of light green energy surrounded her left hand. It was like when she used her starbolts, except this time the energy was also surrounding the eye. She nor I knew what had just happened, but when she wiped her hand down, the eye was forced down too. And when she swiped to the right, the eye followed. I think this may have been one of the Spirit's Sword's powers; she had the ability to trap a foe in a forcefield and control their movement! She smiled when she realized this, and then swiped her hand towards her, causing the eye to be dragged towards her as well. When it was right in front of her, the forcefield dropped and she sliced the eye in half. I went over to see if she was alright. She was a bit fatigued, but otherwise alright.

"I may not have access to my normal powers while holding this sword, but it is fortunate that it grants me other powers." She told me. "Perhaps when this is all over, you could help me discover more when we train?"

I laughed lightly and nodded. Unfortunately we had been distracted long enough that Vaati sent a wave of energy towards us. I was able to get Starfire out of the way in time, but I had to stay and block it with my shield. I went into spirit mode to try and reflect Vaati's attack back at him, but he simply warped to the side to avoid it.

"It does not matter how many powers you gain from your weapons… none of you can hope to match my power! Soon you will all be nothing but ash blowing in the wind!" Vaati gloated.

"Oh yeah? Match _this!" _Ian shouted.

Ian shot out a wave of elemental energy right at Vaati. Vaati didn't notice until the last second, and was hit by the attack full blast. He was blasted right through several of the buildings behind him. The others were surprised by what Ian had just done, as they hadn't been at the top of the tower to witness Ian's new Four Sword powers.

"Booyah." Ian said as he lowered his hand.

"Hey! That's_ my_ line!" Cyborg said in the distance.

Vaati had recovered from the attack and warped back to where we were. He now had a face full of rage, and was directing all of that rage at Ian.

_"That is the power that was within the Four Sword! How could an insect like you wield it?!" _Vaati angrily demanded.

"Let's just say your plan to have me be your vessel backfired. You may have given me your power, but in doing so you inadvertently gave me the Four Sword's power too! And I'm going to use it to send you back where you came from!" Ian responded.

Ian's entire body started glowing. The glow was so bright that it enveloped the entire battle arena, and neither us nor Vaati could see what was happening. When the glow faded, we saw what might be the strangest thing to have happened yet; there were now four Ians! They were identical except for their colors. In order they were wearing purple, green, red, and blue; the same colors that we saw in his elemental attack.

"Okay… this is weird." All four Ians said at once.

At least we weren't the only ones to think so. So now the stage was set; four Ians, each imbued with elemental powers, against the dark power of the Wind Mage Vaati. Would the power of the Four Sword, which now lived within Ian, be enough to defeat Vaati like it did in the past?

* * *

**Like I said in the last chapter, the Four Sword wasn't completely destroyed. It's power now lives in Ian. I thought that it'd be an interesting twist to have Ian, the boy who Vaati used to revive himself, become the very instrument of his destruction. Besides, having Link use the Four Sword would've been too obvious (no offense to Four Swords fans). Not only will Vaati have to face the power of the Four Sword, but it'll be like he's facing four good versions of himself (sort of)! **


	14. Chapter 14: The Power of Four

Chapter Fourteen: The Power of Four

Four Ians now stood against the Wind Mage Vaati. I thought it very strange to see four different versions of the same person at once, but the others told me that they had seen it before. How exactly, I didn't know. The rest of us were going to jump in to help, but Raven raised her hand and told us to stop, saying that this was Ian's fight right now; all four of them. The four Ians still looked a little confused. After being split into four versions of yourself, who wouldn't be?!

"Umm… It's kind of weird seeing three other guys with my… umm… face." The Ian dressed in purple said to the others.

"It's my face too." The blue Ian responded.

The wind around them began to blow harder as Vaati came closer. He was angry; angry from the sight of the four beings that now stood against him. As the Ians were still conversing, Vaati growled to get their attention.

"Guys, I don't think now is the time to talk about this!" The green Ian said.

The other Ians wheeled around to see Vaati floating only about ten feet away from them. All four Ians quickly dropped whatever they were talking about and stood ready to face Vaati. Their hands were glowing with energy, each of their respective colors; probably representing the spiritual elements they commanded.

_"Your newfound power changes nothing! You are still no threat to me little boy! Multiply yourself by any number! I'll take you down no matter how many of you there are!"_ Vaati shouted.

Vaati raised his hands up and formed four flaming eyes which he sent after his opponents. Each version of Ian dodged the attack, but the eyes looped around to confront each hero. They all fired attacks at them, but it did not seem to be working. From a distance, I could see that each eye had a different color; and they matched the colors of the Ian's!

"Ian!" I called out to him.

"Uhh… which one?" Each version of Ian responded.

"All of you! Try attacking the eyes that are the same color as you!" I suggested.

They took my advice and split up, right before the four eyes could hit them, and they instead crashed into each other. Then each eye went after a different Ian. Fortunately, my advice proved effective. The green Ian fired out an attack that resembled a funnel of wind surrounded by green energy, which plowed right through it's target. The red Ian shot out a stream of fire that incinerated the eye on contact. The blue Ian's attack was a beam of ice that froze the eye in place and shattered when it fell to the ground. Finally, the purple Ian used a wave of energy that resembled his old attack, but this time when it hit it's target, the energy formed into rock shards that surrounded the eye and sliced it apart! So these were Ian's new powers? They seemed very impressive. If he was able to utilize power like this effectively, then there was a very good chance that Vaati would go down in flames! And… uh… wind, ice, and earth too, I guess.

However, while the Ians were distracted, Vaati caught them by surprise and swooped down into the purple Ian. Vaati gripped Ian in his hand, trying to crush him. Ian's hands were free though, and he thrust both of his fists into Vaati's arm. Vaati's arm flashed purple for a moment and then began turning to stone! Ian broke free once Vaati's stone arm crumbled and rejoined his duplicates. Vaati was able to regenerate his arm though, and then stirred up an intense wind with his ten wings. But before anyone could be blown away, the blue Ian shot several ice beams towards Vaati. Each one hit their mark, and all ten of Vaati's wings were frozen solid, forcing him down to the ground. He stood, and lunged towards the four Ians, facing them head on. He slashed his claws at whichever duplicate he faced; the force of his attacks creating back drafts of wind powerful enough to cut through the earth around him. The green Ian hit Vaati with a wind-based attack of his own which threw Vaati up into the air, and the red Ian blasted Vaati with fire when there was an opening. Vaati fell to the ground again, still on fire from the attack, but he quickly stood up and shook off the flames.

_"Impressive, but inadequate."_ Vaati scoffed. _"You think those puny attacks can best me?!" _

Vaati raised his hands to the sky and red lightning bolts came down into his fingertips. The eye upon his chest began to glow, as if the energy from the lightning was gathering within him. Once the lightning ceased, he shot out an enormous dark purple laser straight towards all four Ians. They were ready however, and each of them fired their own attack at the laser, keeping it back. At first, it did not seem like either side was going to prevail; their power seemed evenly matched. However, as the four Ians kept it up, their attacks combined to form an even stronger attack and slowly pushed back Vaati's attack, until their powerful elemental attack was too much for Vaati to handle. Vaati was hit by the attack so hard, that most of his body had been incinerated. He collapsed, and the four Ians began to glow brightly again, but this time when the light faded Ian was one person again. It looked as if the battle had been won. We all went over to congratulate him.

"Dude! That was epic!" Beast Boy complemented.

"That had to be the most unusual fight I have ever seen." Robin said. "Nice work, Ian."

"Heh… Thanks. It was nothing…" He responded. "To be honest, I hardly knew what I… or rather _we_ were doing."

"At least it is all over now." Starfire said in relief.

I looked over towards Vaati, who was still collapsed upon the ground. Something didn't seem right. I could see a dark mist forming around him. I informed the others of this and they looked over as well. We were unsure of what was going on, but we'd soon find out that this was not over; not yet.

* * *

Without any warning, Vaati sprang at us from out of the mist, this time once again in his eye monster form, except this time with a gaping mouth full of sharp teeth. Most of us were caught of guard, but Raven had been prepared and raised a shadow barrier to protect us from Vaati's attack. Vaati now looked more menacing than ever, and really angry.

_"You pathetic worms! You think you have won?! Don't make me laugh! I will destroy you all! And once I'm done with you, your world will be next! All shall cower before me!" _He raged.

Raven was doing her best to keep her barrier up. It certainly wasn't easy with Vaati constantly smashing into it. We all consulted Robin for a plan of action, but he had nothing. A moment later, Raven's barrier was weakening, and Vaati smashed through. We tried to hold off his attack, but our attacks only angered him more, and he knocked us all aside. He now faced Ian and Raven. Raven had been hurt from Vaati's attack, and Ian was helping her to stay up.

"Keep away from her!" Ian shouted.

_"You care for this demonspawn? Such petty emotions are nothing in a world where might controls everything! You are wasting your time with this one. It is not like she would ever return your feelings…. or _**_could _**_for that matter." _Vaati claimed.

I had not expected to hear something like this from Vaati, about Ian's personal feelings. Vaati had been a part of Ian for years though, so it would make sense that he'd know of Ian's emotions; and try to use that to his advantage. Unfortunately, it seemed to be working. Ian's head was down in depression, but only for a moment. He looked up at Vaati again and claimed that none of that mattered. Raven had trusted him, opened up to him. Ian understood her situation; to have to keep her emotions under control so that she wouldn't hurt anyone. Ian had gone through the same thing because of Vaati. Now it was his turn to help her, to help all of his new friends, and to stop the very abomination that had tortured him all his life. He faced Vaati and swore that he would stop him; no matter what it took.

"Yeah! You tell him Ian!" Beast Boy shouted out.

Vaati laughed at Ian's little speech. Then two clawed arms grew out of his sides and he sent them straight towards Ian. Ian closed his eyes, prepared for the worst, but Vaati's attack was stopped. A similar looking claw formed out of shadow magic had appeared from nowhere and grasped Vaati's arms before they could strike. It looked like Raven had brought it forth, but something was different. We all saw it; a dark aura had surrounded Raven, and from the terrified looks on the other's faces, I could tell that this wasn't good. Raven stepped out from Ian's grasp and stood up, and I immediately noticed something wrong; very wrong. Raven now looked very angry, not only from the look on her face, but also from the fact that she had two additional eyes on her forehead! All four of her eyes were glowing red, and at this point even Vaati looked frightened.

"Now it is your turn to cower before _me_!" She shouted demonically.

Raven suddenly grew to about five times her original height, and four pitch black tentacle-like appendages came out of her cloak and grasped both of Vaati's arms. She pulled Vaati right out of the air and slammed him down into the ground. Then to our horror, with a loud ripping sound she tore both of Vaati's arms right out of their sockets! Well… if he had any sockets. Vaati screamed in pain, and Raven seemed to delight in his misery. I didn't know what was happening, but Robin told me that Raven had 'lost it'. Raven was the daughter of a demon called Trigon, and she had inherited his evil powers, which were very difficult for her to control. They were powered by emotion, and more she felt, the more energy she unleashes, which has a very good chance of putting those around her in danger. She had become like this right after Ian had tried to protect her from Vaati. Perhaps this meant that she did return those feelings; although in this case that wasn't necessarily a good thing.

We all tried calling out to her, to try and get her to come to her senses. Ian simply stood in place, unsure of what to make of the situation. How she had become was very similar to how he had lost control before, only this was much worse! Raven did not seem to be listening to any of us, and by now her tentacles were piercing right through Vaati's eye. While he was screaming in pain, she had a very wicked grin on her face. Then all of the sudden she looked surprised, and looked down to her side. Ian was pulling on Raven's cloak, begging her to stop.

"Raven, the fight is over! Snap out of it!" Ian said.

A single tear fell out of Ian's eye, and at the sight of this Raven's eyes went back to normal, and she shrank back down to her original size. She grasped her head as if she had a headache, and then stood up straight. To think that she had turned like that simply from uncontrollable emotion. I understood what that was like; after all, I myself had turned into a monster about six months ago because of how I felt about Starfire. Ian ran up to Raven and asked if she was alright. All was silent for a moment, but then to everyone's surprise, Raven walked up to Ian and hugged him. Even from a distance we could all see Ian's face turn light red. He hugged her back, which lasted for only a few seconds.

"I was afraid that you wouldn't snap out of it. Don't ever scare me like that again." Ian told her.

"I can't guarantee that." Raven responded. "When Vaati was taunting you about your emotions, about how you felt, I didn't like that. His constant torment of you made me angry, and… well you all saw what happened next."

Ian nodded. We were all just glad that it was over. Starfire flew up to both of them to make sure they were unharmed. They both insisted that they were fine, and then we all turned our attention towards Vaati again. The dark mist from before was beginning to surround him again, and we knew that couldn't be good. Robin was trying to think of a way to deal with this, but Ian stopped him.

"Guys. I know what I have to do." Ian said with a hint of depression.

He walked over towards Vaati and stopped right in front of him. None of us were sure what Ian was thinking; if Vaati could endlessly regenerate himself how could Ian or the rest of us stop him.

"Vaati's prison was the Four Sword, and the Four Sword's power now lives within me. With the actual sword destroyed, there is only one other option." Ian said.

Raven apparently knew exactly what Ian was planning to do. She called out to him, telling him not to do it; saying that there could be another way. I asked her what Ian was planning to do.

"He's going to try to seal Vaati away… within _himself!_" Raven informed us.

What?! Ian was going to use _himself_ to contain Vaati?! But if he did that, he'd have the same problems that he had before! He'd once again have trouble controlling himself and have to keep his emotions under control, only this time it would be even worse! the rest of us called out to Ian, insisting that he think about what he is doing.

"I know exactly what I'm doing. Vaati's power influenced my birth. Even though his power left me, he's always going to have an effect on my mind, and I feel that as long as I exist, he'll never go away. At least if he's sealed within me, he won't be a threat to anyone." He told us.

"But… he'll be a threat to you." Raven said. "You'll have to work even harder to stay in control. You'll never be able to live a normal life."

"Since the day I was born, I've _never_ had a normal life; and I don't think that is ever going to change." Ian responded.

He then turned his head toward us and smiled. He was going to sacrifice his own happiness for the safety of everyone else. I couldn't help but admire his bravery, and I'm sure that the rest of my friends felt the same.

"Don't get used to this smile. It might be the last one you see for some time." Ian told us before turning back around to face Vaati.

Ian raised up both of his hands and pointed them towards Vaati, who was still regenerating himself. Four colored orbs bearing the same colors as Ian's duplicates from before encircled Vaati and entrapped him in a magic barrier. The energy within the barrier changed Vaati from a solid form into a mass of dark energy. Ian closed his eyes and Vaati's dark energy form flowed out from the barrier and was absorbed into Ian's hands. As the darkness flowed into him, Ian looked as if he was in pain. Would he even be _able_ to contain the Wind Mage?

After a few minutes, the flow of dark energy stopped, and Ian fell to his knees. We all rushed over to him to see if he was alright. He stood up, and we could immediately see that his appearance had changed. His left eye was once again pure red, and the arrow shaped mark was underneath his eye again, except this time it was under both eyes. His skin tone had also turned even paler than it had been before, and the eye shaped mark that had appeared on his head before was back, but this time it wasn't glowing and appeared to be permanent. He shook himself off and faced us, claiming that he was fine; but we could tell that was a lie.

"You do not look fine." Starfire claimed.

"Vaati's sealed inside you now, but… do you have control?" I asked him.

"Yeah, I'm in control. But even now I can feel him clawing at my mind, trying to gain control. Things are going to be a lot more difficult from now on." Ian answered. "On the bright side, I have my old powers back. I was more accustomed to them anyway."

"But what about those cool Four Sword powers?" Beast Boy asked him.

Ian tilted his head down and closed his eyes for a moment, as if searching his mind for the answer. He then looked upon us again and told us that he no longer had access to them. The Four Sword's power was required to keep Vaati imprisoned, and as such he no longer had access to that power. A small loss, but we were just glad that all of this was over; for real this time.

* * *

Suddenly we all heard a demonic laugh come from nowhere; a very familiar laugh. A flash of dark fire appeared overhead of us, and from the fire appeared Majora. As his plan to resurrect Vaati had ultimately failed, you would think that he would be enraged, but he actually looked the opposite. He had an unpleasant smile on his, umm… 'face', and his eyes were open wide as if excited.

_"Enjoyed by your victory are you, children?"_ He sneered. _"Well, don't get used to it. This little incursion was only the beginning of what I have in store for all of you!" _

"You just don't know when to quit, do you?!" Robin shouted. "Throw whatever you've got at us! We'll be ready!"

"Yeah! Bring it on!" Both I and Starfire shouted, which made us blush a little afterwards.

Majora just laughed at our statements, as if he found our courage and determination funny. Did he think that all of this was a joke?! He squinted his eyes, likely thinking of whatever it was his next plan was. Before he disappeared, he had one last thing to tell us.

_"Simply know this: Ian was not the only one holding cursed power. There are others… some of them closer than you may think…"_ Majora told us, with his gaze fixed particularly upon me.

He then vanished in a flash of dark fire. Others with cursed power? And that they may be closer than we think? What did Majora mean by that? I was worried, and I think Starfire could tell, for she placed her arms around one of mine in an effort to comfort me. I felt a little better, although I noticed that Robin had glanced towards me with a sour look in his eye (it was hard to tell with his mask on though). We all agreed that we should save the trouble of dealing with Majora for later, because right now we had to help clean up the mess caused by Vaati and his tower. Getting that huge tower out of here was actually easier than we thought. As it would turn out, Ian was able to make the tower disappear with only a wave of his hand. His old powers must've become much stronger now that Vaati himself was fueling them; although this also made it much riskier for him to use them. Once everything had been cleaned up, we headed back to Titans Tower for a rest, and to decide what we should do next.


	15. Chapter 15: Ian's Farewell

Chapter Fifteen: Ian's Farewell

Once back at the tower, Ian sat on the couch while levitating slightly. He was in lotus position and meditating. He kept this up for over two hours; we were all beginning to worry. Vaati was now sealed inside of Ian, more specifically within his soul, and just like before, Ian had to keep himself calm in order to keep the demon's evil power from taking control of him. Before though, only a portion of Vaati's power had affected him. Now, all of Vaati's power was imprisoned within him, so he had to keep an even tighter hold on his emotions. By the next day, he was still in the same position, and we were all gathered around him.

"Is Ian going to be okay?" I asked.

"Don't worry. He's trying to keep himself calm. It's just… Ian's not used to having to control Vaati's full power, and it's taking longer for him to adapt to it." Raven implied.

A moment later, Ian's eyes opened, and he descended back onto the couch. Raven asked if he had everything under control. Ian put his hand upon the mark on his forehead and sighed.

"I'm in control, but… it's really hard to keep Vaati back. I feel like the slightest thought will cause me to lose it, and I feel like it's only going to get worse." Ian said.

Raven took Ian's hand in hers and told him not to worry; that if Ian continued his mental training, that everything would be okay. Ian, however, did not look very assured. Everything that Vaati had done, how he possessed Ian, tortured us, and nearly destroyed the city, Ian felt like it was all his fault.

"Raven… I hate to say this, but… I don't think your lessons are going to be enough. And I feel like as long as I'm here, it is going to be even difficult to stay in control." Ian said sadly. "I have to go somewhere else… somewhere where I'll be able to focus on staying in control, and where I won't be a threat to anyone."

Ian had to leave? But we had only met him about two weeks ago! Besides, where would he go where he could get better mental training than here? Apparently, Raven had the answer; she mentioned Azarath, the place where she grew up. Ian and the rest of us were curious, so Raven told us more.

"I was born in Azarath. It is a city suspended in a dimension of eternal twilight. It is also where I was trained to control my emotions." She told us. "I could take Ian there, but… if I do, then we might not see him for a while."

"It sounds like the best option. If I stay here as I am now, I will only cause more trouble." Ian replied.

Raven nodded, and went off to her room to get something that could open a portal to Azarath. We all gave each other looks of uncertainty. Ian was really going to go to another dimension to train? Robin hadn't even given Ian a communicator yet, and besides, after all they have been through wouldn't Raven miss him? Actually, I'm pretty sure that we would all miss him.

"Are you sure about this Ian? I mean, I can understand wanting to stay in control, but… moving to another dimension?" Robin asked him.

"Yeah, that seems a bit extreme to me." Cyborg said.

"You should not be so hasty to leave, Ian. For all you know, being away from your friends could make your situation worse!" Starfire claimed.

"It's my best option right now. Besides, if I did lose control there, at least I wouldn't be harming any of you." Ian replied.

The others still had worried looks on their faces, and Starfire was trying to come up with another reason for him to stay. Before she could come up with anything I interrupted her, saying that if Ian felt that this was what he had to do, that we shouldn't stop him. Starfire did not like the idea, but she agreed.

"I only regret that the Four Sword was destroyed. Well… at least it's power is still within me." Ian said disappointingly.

"Actually, that's not entirely true…" I said.

Ian and the others questioned what I meant. What I meant was that while the sword was broken, it wasn't gone, because I had managed to retrieve the shattered parts of it before we defeated Vaati. I pulled them out of my pack and held them out for everyone to see. Ian's eyes widened, no doubt glad to see that his family heirloom hadn't been lost forever.

"It's still broken, but I bet that with enough time, Cyborg might be able to fix it." I told him.

"Well… I've never worked with swords before, but I'll give it a shot!" Cyborg replied.

Ian claimed that that was wonderful. It would take some time, but there was a chance that if we got the Four Sword fixed that we might be able to re-seal Vaati into it, and Ian wouldn't have to act as Vaati's prison anymore. It was a stretch, but it _could_ work. A minute later, Raven came back into the room carrying a bottle of sand-like substance in one hand, and a very old looking book in the other.

"This is the Book of Azar. Within it's pages is one of the only known spells that can open a portal to Azarath." Raven said.

She then poured the sand out of the bottle and formed a circle upon the floor. Both Raven and Ian stepped into the portal; Ian told her that he was ready. Raven opened the book and placed her hand on it.

"One last thing before I go…" Ian told us. "Can you let my brother know where I'm going? He probably won't care too much, but he should still know."

"No problem, man. I'll look into that." Cyborg responded.

After saying our good-byes, Raven chanted an incantation in a language I did not understand. A white portal opened up above them, and a light beam shot down onto them. When the light cleared, they were gone. We knew that Raven would be back soon, but as for Ian, we didn't know when we would see him again.

* * *

About five hours had passed since Ian had left with Raven for Azarath, and Raven was still not back yet. I started to worry that she wouldn't be able to get back, but the others assured me that she'd be able to get back fine, and that she was probably just spending a little time with Ian before she had to leave. I guess that would make sense, as Ian and Raven definitely had a thing for each other. With my worries put to rest, I headed back to my room. On the way back though, I ran into Cyborg. He claimed that he had been looking for me.

"Did you need something, Cyborg?" I asked him.

"Yeah. I was thinking, in addition to repairing the Four Sword, I was wondering if I could take a look at your bow too." Cyborg answered.

My bow? I questioned why Cyborg would want to do something with my bow. He mentioned that he noticed how I had run out of arrows so quickly when we were fighting Majora, and said that he wanted to try and upgrade my bow so that I would not need arrows to use it. A bow that could work without arrows? How could that even be possible? He just said that it would be a surprise for me. I was a little confused, but if he was able to make my bow perform better than it did now then I didn't see any problem with him fiddling with it. I went to my room, grabbed my bow, and handed it to Cyborg. He thanked me and patted me on the back, hard enough that it almost knocked me down…again. He then walked off, most likely to his room, saying that I wouldn't regret it.

I once again began walking back to my room. I was about halfway there when I happened to bump into Robin.

"Link. Just the guy I was looking for." He said.

"Uhh… Hi Robin. Is there something I can help you with?" I asked him.

"Yeah. It's about what happened before this whole 'Vaati' incident. When you and Starfire were on that journey together. I'd like to know more about that." Robin answered.

He wanted me to tell him about the journey to the Phantom Island that Starfire and I had? That was a relief; I had thought that this was about the argument that he and I had before that journey began. I went through all of the important details; such as Starfire meeting me at Lanayru's Spring, our journey to Steel City, our voyage upon the S.S. Linebeck, and finally our time on the Phantom Island where Starfire and I happened upon an interesting story. However, I also mentioned the part when Starfire and I were stuck down in the chasm after I had unintentionally removed Majora's Mask from the box it was sealed in. Robin was a little suspicious about that scenario.

"Uh-huh…" Robin responded. "And what happened while you two were stuck in there?"

"Nothing much. Just a conversation about…" I began to say, but quickly cut myself off.

I had remembered that the conversation that she and I had involved the feeling one gets when they are kissed by someone they like; and that Starfire was going to kiss me! Robin's suspicion grew and he told me to 'spit it out'. I stuttered for a moment, trying to think of something else to tell him. I simply told him that it had been a conversation about 'things', and that Majora interrupted us in the middle.

"Starfire was going to kiss you, wasn't she?" Robin asked me, with a big scowl on his face.

"What?! What makes you think that?" I responded nervously.

Robin did not buy my bluff. Had it been _that_ obvious? Apparently, it was. I was sweating nervously; worried about what Robin would do to me for almost kissing his ex-girlfriend. I hastily assured him that nothing had happened between me and Starfire while on the Phantom Island; that she and I simply had an adventure and a friendly conversation. Robin angrily pointed at me and glared.

"Just keep your hands off of her! If I see you lay one finger on her, I'm gonna kick your….!" Robin snarled.

But he was cut off someone else; someone we both knew very well. Starfire had just so happened to overhear us, and was now standing behind Robin. Her arms were crossed and she did not look at all pleased.

"Kick Link's _what_, Robin?" She questioned him.

At the sound of her voice, Robin immediately turned around to face her, and now_ he_ looked nervous. Robin nervously claimed that he was just telling me that he was glad that I had decided to return to the tower. Starfire, however, did not seem to be buying his lie, and still looked rather annoyed. It is very likely that she knew exactly what he was going to say to me.

"You are not fooling me Robin. You were threatening Link again!" She said.

Robin looked a little frightened; even more so when Starfire pointed her finger at him and began to scold him.

"Must I remind you that you and I are _done?!_ You have not the rights to threaten Link! He has done nothing to deserve such treatment! Besides, he happens to be the one who rid us of Slade, who was_ your_ person demon! You of all people should be thankful to him for that!" She shouted at him, while her eyes were flaming with green aura in anger.

By now, Robin looked pretty helpless to find a way out of this. I did not like to see friends argue like this. Sure, I had been jealous of Robin because Starfire had been his girlfriend, but I didn't want to make it so that she hated him! I had to do _something_ to stop this!

"Calm down Starfire!" I interrupted. "Robin was just… umm… laying down some of the towers ground rules to me."

"Really?" Starfire asked me, in a tone that betrayed the fact that she wasn't convinced. "Did one of those 'rules' happen to be 'do not come within ten feet of Starfire or I will break your neck?!'"

"Umm… no." I replied, even though that actually _was_ similar to what he was telling me. "He was mentioning something about, umm… not touching his motorcycle."

That was not at all what he had been trying to tell me, and the slightly stupefied look on his face betrayed that. I wonder if he was grateful for me trying to defend him from Starfire's anger, even after he was such a jerk to me; actually it was more like he was confused. Starfire however, even as naive as she is, did not buy it.

"Somehow, I doubt highly that is what he actually said to you. I have not forgotten all of the hurtful things he said to you. I had never imagined that Robin would act like that, especially towards a friend." She remarked.

Afterwards, she grabbed my hand and began to lead me off towards my room, saying that she and I were going somewhere more 'private', and away from any 'Klorbags', which I assumed was an insult aimed towards Robin. Honestly, I was still a bit perplexed by all of this, so I just went with it. Before we left though, she turned her head to Robin and told him one last thing.

"Oh, and Robin? Do not meaninglessly threaten Link again… Or else you will answer to me!" She warned him.

Robin now looked really frightened, and at this point even I was a little scared. Was she actually implying that she would hurt him if he tried threatening me again?! She probably meant something else, but still… it was surprising for me to see her _that_ angry at him.

* * *

Once Starfire and I had gotten to my room, she and I sat down on my bed and began another conversation. I was still surprised by how she had behaved towards Robin, and all because of me.

"Link, I am so sorry about how Robin was treating you. You do not need to worry. You can be around me as often as you like." She told me.

She had placed her hand on my shoulder as she said that. I was fortunate to have a friend who cared about me this much, but I still thought that her actions towards Robin were a little extreme.

"It's fine, Kori. But don't you think that you were a bit too harsh on him? I mean, he was only trying to protect you." I told her.

She and I both knew what I had meant by that. Robin no doubt remembered the time when I turned evil and attempted to kill everyone. He must have been worried that it could happen again, and that I may end up hurting Starfire if I am too close to her. Starfire did not seem to care about this, she was going to be my friend no matter what, but I know that even though she had broken up with Robin she still had feelings for him; at least a little. I just hoped that it wouldn't cause me to lose it again.

"I suppose I _was _rather… loud towards him." Kori agreed. "Do not get me in the wrong, I do still like Robin, just not in 'the way' anymore. Though I do not see why he would want you to stay away from me… other than because of the jealousy."

"He's probably worried that I might lose it again and hurt you. I _did_ turn evil out of my own feelings before. You never know… something like that could happen again. It is actually good judgment; I wouldn't want you to get hurt either." I replied.

She placed her hand on my shoulder again and turned to look at me. Her beautiful green eyes met with my blue eyes, and my heart began to race. Even after that incident, even after everything I have put her and our friends through, she was still here for me; she was willing to take the risk, willing to be friends with… with a monster.

"I do not care if I am at risk of being hurt by your darker half. You are the nicest person I have ever met, Link… and I do not enjoy seeing you being bullied." She told me.

There was a sparkle in her eyes as she said that. She could see that I was blushing, which was not really surprising, I always blush whenever she gets this close to me. I appreciated her kind words.

"Thank you, Kori. That's… nice of you to say." I replied. "I still think you were too hard on Robin, though. It almost looked like you would've hurt him, which of course I know you wouldn't, but still… I think you should go apologize to him."

"Okay. I do not think I can forgive him for the mean things he said to you before, but I will apologize to him for my behavior." She responded.

Before she left though she brought up something else, the very topic that Robin had been questioning me about before.

"That reminds me, Link! I… umm… never finished the… umm… 'demonstration' of the thing that you asked me about while we were on the Phantom Island. Perhaps now we could…?" Kori asked me while smiling very cutely.

"Uhh… Do you mean when you were about to kiss me?!" I questioned nervously. "After everything that has just happened I think that should wait!"

Kori looked disappointed to hear that, but she respected my decision and agreed. Besides, I did not think that this was the right moment for such a thing.

"Oh… all right… Before I go though, may I do one thing?" She asked me.

"Uhh… sure, Kori." I answered. "What is it?"

She did not answer with words, however. She first gazed at me with her eyes slightly parted, which made her look very pretty. Then with barely any warning, she quickly leaned forward and kissed me on the cheek! I blushed again, this time even more than before. Afterwards, she got up and walked out the door while waving good-bye to me. I placed my hand on my cheek, in the same area where she kissed me. It wasn't the same as the kiss that we had almost done on the Phantom Island, but it still felt wonderful. I would've said that I was never going to wash my cheek again, but I knew that I would have to eventually.

* * *

That evening, Raven had returned from dropping off Ian in Azarath. Most of us had been gathered in the ops room when she returned, and we were relieved that she had come back safely. We were, however, curious as to why she had taken so long. When we asked her, her answer was exactly what most of us had thought.

"I decided to spend a little time with Ian before I had to leave him in Azarath. I dropped him off with the Azarathian monks. There is no need to worry, Ian is in good hands." Raven told us.

Starfire and I questioned Raven about what she and Ian while they were in Azarath. Raven had a slightly nervous look in her eyes as she answered us, but otherwise she answered us just as calmly as she normally was… well, most of the time. She told us that she had simply given Ian a tour of Azarath, stopped for some refreshments, and then visited the great palace where she dropped off Ian. Knowing Raven she was likely telling the truth, but something was telling me that she and Ian had done just a little more than that. I don't know, maybe Raven had hugged Ian good-bye or something and she just didn't want to tell us. She liked to keep to herself, so I could understand why.

"Cyborg? Did you let Ian's brother know where he went?" Raven asked Cyborg.

"Yeah, I did." Cyborg responded. "And get this: Ian's brother happens to be that goth guy that you've hung out with sometimes."

Raven looked a little surprised by that statement. I didn't know what they were talking about, but they quickly filled me in. Ian's brother was a goth boy that Raven had spent time with on several occasions before, although she and him never had a real relationship. Despite this, Raven admitted that she liked Ian more than his brother. That was good; Raven had clearly developed a close bond with Ian. I just hoped that she would be able to cope with his absence. I didn't need to worry though, as Raven was very good at controlling her emotions, so Ian's absence probably wouldn't affect her too badly.

Before any of us left the room, Cyborg said that he had a surprise for us, particularly for me. He mentioned how he had asked if he could work on my bow earlier, and after hours of working on it he was finally done. He pulled out my bow, which didn't look like a bow at first, more like a small metal tube. But then he pressed a button on its side and the device expanded out on both sides to form a bow coated in metal. We all awed at it; it was impressive, but I noticed that there was no string. How was I going to fire arrows with it?

"I spent all day on this: Link's new and improved bow. Not only is it collapsable and easy to carry, but it can also fire arrows _without_ arrows!" Cyborg claimed.

"It fires arrows _without_ arrows? How does that work?" I inquired.

"Why don'tcha give it a try?" Cyborg responded. "Just place your hand where the string would normally be and make the motion of firing an arrow."

He then handed me my bow. I was about to try it, but Robin quickly stopped me, suggesting that we go to the training room to test it rather than testing it in the ops room. That was a good idea; I didn't want to risk breaking anything important. Once we were all in the training room, I resumed the process of testing my new bow. I raised it towards a wooden target and readied it as if I was aiming an arrow. To my surprise, a small laser shot out in-between the bow, forming a makeshift string. The others were surprised too, all except for Cyborg, who was expecting this to happen. I pulled back on the laser string and a laser arrow formed in-between my fingers. So far, I was liking this, so I let fly the laser arrow right at the target. It hit the target in a manner similar to how a normal arrow would. Everyone was impressed, and Cyborg let out a 'booyah', pleased that this project had worked. Cyborg then suggested that I try firing a few arrows while in spirit mode, so I went into spirit mode and fired a few more arrows. Just like when I had used regular arrows, the laser arrows would change into either fire or ice arrows; changing color to either red or blue depending on the kind of arrow used. Honestly, Cyborg had outdone himself!

"Just remember, every shot drains the bow's power supply. I designed it to recharge if it runs out, but it takes some time to completely refill. So you're still gonna have to be smart when using this bow in battle." Cyborg informed me.

The others wanted to try it too. It did not seem fair for me to be the only one to try it out, so I happily let the others give it a try. Robin, Raven, and Starfire were able to use the bow rather well, but Beast Boy didn't fare so well; missing all but one shot. Of course, none of them were able to shoot fire or ice arrows from it since it could only shoot those because of my spirit mode powers, but they all still had fun with it. After our fun, most of the others left the training room, all except for me and Starfire. I questioned why she had stayed.

"I was hoping that you and I could train together right now. I believe that it is a good idea that you and I get as much practice with our swords as possible, especially since Majora is now on the loose." She claimed.

"Oh. Umm… alright. I'll go get my sword." I replied.

"And I shall go retrieve mine." She replied back.

After we had retrieved our swords, we started our training. Starfire and I were beginning to do this rather often, and whenever we did we always ended up enjoying ourselves. Starfire was getting better at using her Spirit's Sword; she was now able to use it with one hand rather easily. Plus, she had discovered a new power she could use while holding it, which sort of made up for the fact that she couldn't use her regular powers while using the Spirit's Sword. With Majora on the loose though, we now had to be prepared for the worst. Who knows what Majora had in store for all of us.

* * *

Meanwhile, in one of the darker corners of the city, in a meeting that none of us witnessed, two figures had appeared to meet; one in the shape of a man, and the other in the shape of a large face with sharp teeth and tentacles coming from behind it. It was Ghirahim and Majora, no doubt discussing their next diabolical plot.

"Well, it appears the plan to resurrect the Wind Mage was a complete failure. Any other ideas, _partner?_" Ghirahim asked Majora.

_"Actually, the true purpose behind the Wind Mage's resurrection did indeed go according to plan."_ Majora claimed.

"What are you talking about?" Ghirahim questioned.

_"My intention was not for Vaati to rise to power, but rather to ravage the land around him; and in doing so, he provided the exact kind of power that I needed to form _**_this!_**_"_ Majora stated.

Majora then rose up one of his tentacles, and a small dark blue flame appeared on the tip. After flaming for a moment, a dark blue, crystalline shard formed from within the flame. As Majora held it in his tentacle, he began to chuckle evilly. He displayed the shard to Ghirahim, who asked what it was.

_"This is a Demon Shard, formed from the suffering brought forth from Vaati's rampage. With this shard, and the one that I created long ago from the destruction of the land of Hyrule, we are now one step closer to our goal."_ Majora said, while another shard appeared in another of one his tentacles; this one being dark red. _"And once our goal has been reached, there will be nothing that the Titans can do to stop us!"_

Majora unleashed a laugh of pure insanity; one that could be heard for miles, possibly across several planes of existence. What was Majora planning to do with these Demon Shards? And more importantly, would we be able to stop him from achieving this 'goal' of his?


End file.
